Bari Weiss, who is still new to her role as managing editor at CBS News, took time at City Hall Tuesday morning to tell her staff that instead of trying to retain viewers who flock to the company’s popular programs on broadcast television, the company needs to focus more on increasing the number of viewers flocking to digital and social media.
Walter Cronkite “had two competitors,” she told staffers gathered in an “all-hands” meeting, either in person or via digital connection. “We have assets of more or less 2 billion.”
“I’m here to make CBS News fit for purpose in the 21st century,” Weiss told staff, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by Paramount’s Skydance division, which intends to make CBS News a must-see program for a broad community of news lovers around the world.
Weiss has been under the microscope since arriving in October after Paramount acquired her conservative opinion site, The Free Press, for $150 million. Since taking office, she has pressed programs like “CBS Evening News” and “60 Minutes” to give Trump administration officials and other leaders more time. CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil’s early days on the job were marred by embarrassing episodes that included praising Secretary of State Marco Rubio and downplaying the seriousness of changing vaccine protocols, as well as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the shooting death of a woman in Minneapolis by ICE agents.
She then ordered a “60 Minutes” segment originally scheduled to air on Dec. 21 to be canceled, causing unwanted publicity. The story, by correspondent Sharin Alfonsi, was built around the on-screen account of a Venezuelan man who was deported by the United States to a harsh prison in El Salvador, but at the time Weiss insisted that Trump officials appear on the report and comment on camera, despite Alfonsi’s team’s good faith efforts to secure a response before filing the report. Legal review. The segment aired about a month later, on January 18, and Alfonsi’s three-minute remarks were recorded before and after, but Trump did not appear on screen.
During the phone call, she admitted that there was “a lot of noise around me from taking this job.”
Staff members who attended the meeting said they were working in chaos. “I think we’re all walking around with gas in our pants,” said Gayle King, one of the co-anchors of “CBS Morning.” A CBS Evening News staffer said people are “scared for their jobs, afraid to even speak for fear of retaliation. There’s a chilling effect within the newsroom. It feels like right now, if you offer feedback, alternatives or constructive criticism, you’re looking for a target on your back,” the staffer said in a question relayed to Weiss before Tuesday’s rally.
And while the executive made a strong pitch for a new vision for the news department, he took a lighter touch in addressing the turmoil that has swirled at CBS News since he took over. People familiar with the news department describe it as a workplace on the verge of dysfunction, with trust between Weiss’ managers and ordinary journalists at its worst.
She said, “In the face of all this uproar, why might you feel anxious or skeptical about me and what I’m aiming for here? I’m not going to stand here today and ask for your trust. I’m going to earn your trust, just as we have to do with our viewers.”
Weiss is not the only senior news executive looking for ways to reach modern audiences. CNN has announced a subscription-based streaming service aimed at giving mobile viewers more options in how they view Warner Bros. Discovery Outlet’s news collection. NBC News has launched several streaming products built around flagship shows like “Today” and “Dateline,” as well as a daily livestreaming service that leverages anchors like Tom Lama and Harry Jackson. Fox News is putting new emphasis on its Fox Nation subscription service, which relies heavily on audio and lifestyle programming.
Like some of those news rivals, Weiss said he will seek updates to internal processes. Weiss said that when considering stories, staff should not think about “what shows will cover it” or “what time it will air on linear TV,” but rather “how can we create the most revelatory stories for an audience that expects news instantly and on demand. And for a younger generation for whom ‘streaming’ and ‘social’ are just TV and news.”
CBS News announced new hires Tuesday that hint at the future direction of the news department. Some of these new contributors are Free Press columnists. There are also podcasters who have established fan bases. Among those named to these roles was Pac’s fashion reporter, Lauren Sherman. Casey Lewis, trend researcher with a focus on Gen Z. Physician Mark Hyman has been active in reforming food and agriculture policy, and was a supporter of some of the controversial policies introduced by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr.
Executives then told staff: “We need to start looking at ourselves honestly. We’re not building a product that enough people want. You can blame demographics, technology, fragmented attention spans and ‘news avoidance,’ but these are all coping mechanisms.”
Since joining CBS News, she has reiterated her belief that mainstream media is no longer trusted, and emphasized that CBS News must be a place where viewers can hear all sides of an argument, even if it makes them uncomfortable. Independent Americans “want to have all the facts,” she said, “and they want to know what’s really going on, even if it hurts their sensibilities.”
She suggested that traditional measures of success may no longer apply. “Winning isn’t about ratings; it’s about creating something people can’t live without. Ultimately, it’s about creating content that’s compelling enough to make Paramount+ a must-have in every home,” she said. CBS News “will continue to make great broadcast television. Where our programming is lagging, we will reimagine it just like evening news. Where we are winning, we will dramatically expand its reach.”
Weiss characterized CBS News’ ability to move forward as important. “Our strategy in the past has been to hang on to the audience that stays on broadcast TV,” she said. “If we stick with that strategy, we will be very successful.”
