Eric Ober Resigns as President of CBS News Division : Television: Staff cuts and the ratings slump hurt his five-year tenure. A replacement isn’t expected to be named for two weeks.

Eric Ober, the president of CBS News, told his staff early Thursday that he would leave his position on Jan. 12, ending a five-year tenure marked by huge cutbacks in news-gathering and a persistent ratings slump.

Ober’s departure from CBS, whose news ratings have languished in third place for most of the ‘90s, has been rumored for months and was widely expected to be announced after Westinghouse Electric Corp. took over the ailing network in late November.

A replacement is not expected to be named until the second week of January, after CBS President Peter Lund returns from vacation, although the announcement could be moved up to next week.

Andrew Heyward, the producer of “The CBS Evening News” and creator of the network’s successful newsmagazine “48 Hours,” is considered the front-runner for the job.

In a memo to the CBS News staff on Thursday, Ober, 53, said he was stepping aside because Lund had “decided to make a change in the presidency of CBS News.” The memo didn’t elaborate, however CBS News sources said Thursday that Ober’s resignation was a preemptive move because he knew a replacement was about to be named. Ober, a 30-year veteran of the network, did not spell out his plans or return phone calls.

Westinghouse officials would not comment on the development with Lund out of town and unreachable. Lund was reaffirmed in his post as head of the company by the new owners in early December.

CBS News sources do not expect Ober to stay at the network, unlike some other top executives who have been displaced in the Westinghouse takeover, including CBS Radio head Nancy Widman and TV Station chief Johnathan Rodgers. Lund has vowed to find positions in CBS management for Widman, the most senior woman, and Rodgers, the most senior African American.

Sources say Ober has been on shaky ground for some time because of his inability to restore CBS News to the top rating that it enjoyed for most of the ‘80s. Many of his attempts backfired, including the risky pairing two years ago of anchors Connie Chung and Dan Rather on “The CBS Evening News.” Though the male-female anchor partnership was intended to modernize the report and help lift ratings, the popularity of the show fell and critics attacked Chung for a lack of aggressive reporting and a soft news style.

Ober, who had hailed the pairing as a breakthrough, conceded its failure in May, when he pulled Chung off “The CBS Evening News” in what became a bitter episode, with Chung accusing the network of sexism.

Some CBS sources say Heyward would be a popular choice with the troops who see Heyward as someone who could return CBS News to the hard-hitting approach that allowed it to rule the top ranks for so long.

Some company sources said Ober was unable to fix the ratings slide because of budget restraints during his tenure, under the rule of the notorious cost-cutter, Laurence Tisch, the investor who recently sold CBS to Westinghouse. “[Ober] presided over the biggest cuts in 1990 and 1991 that any network news operation has ever undergone,” said one source. “Our news budget is still far less than ABC’s.”

ABC has held the lead since 1990, when it pushed CBS out of first place in the ratings. Ober was appointed president of CBS News in August 1990. He was president of CBS Television Stations for three years before that, overseeing the network’s stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Miami. Since joining CBS in 1966, Ober held various positions as producer, writer and news director.