Outsourcing the headlines? That seemed to be on the cards with speculation that US television network CBS is in talks with CNN about outsourcing its reporting operations to the all-news network.

A report on NYTimes.com had said that CBS News/Sports president Sean McManus and CNN International president Jim Walton were talking about ways the two networks could combine forces. This could include CBS paying CNN to use its newsgathering resources.

According to US media scuttlebutt, the plan is about "reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds."

But CBS News denied any such talks. "We are extremely satisfied with and proud of our newsgathering operation," a CBS News spokeswoman said Monday. "No outside arrangement is being negotiated."

The spokeswoman conceded that there had been discussions around the prospect of a pool arrangement between CBS and CNN in Baghdad, but these had come to nothing.