- Bari Weiss, the top editor at CBS News, outlined her vision in an all-hands meeting.
- "Our strategy has been to cling to broadcast," she said. "If we stick to that strategy, we're toast."
- Weiss has ruffled some feathers in the months since Paramount CEO David Ellison hired her.
In a town hall on Tuesday, Bari Weiss shared her vision for CBS News and some tough "truth" with her staff.
The CBS News editor in chief, who was handpicked by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, told employees that the company must evolve beyond broadcast TV and earn audience trust.
"Our strategy until now has been to cling to the audience that remains on broadcast television. I'm here to tell you that if we stick to that strategy, we're toast," Weiss said on the all-hands call, which Business Insider obtained a recording of.
Weiss added that "CBS News is still in a linear mentality and we need to shift to a streaming mentality immediately."
"The honest truth is, right now, we are not producing product that enough people want," Weiss said. She added that the staff can't entirely blame factors like "demographics, or technology, or ADHD, or fractured attention spans, or news avoidance" for audience declines.
The CBS News top editor also announced she's adding "many more" contributors, including writers and podcasters, to the news network.
Weiss, a former newspaper opinion editor with little prior TV experience and an anti-establishment streak, was an unconventional pick to lead a 99-year-old broadcast network. She made a name for herself in 2020 by loudly resigning from The New York Times, alleging anti-conservative bias. Weiss then started the news and opinion site The Free Press, which Paramount bought for $150 million in October.
Notably, Weiss reports directly to Ellison rather than to Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News. As CBS News editor in chief, Weiss has been given a green light to shake up the broadcast network, which has trailed competitors ABC News and NBC News for years, and transform it for the digital age.
In her first memo to CBS News staffers, Weiss shared her 10 core tenets, including a pledge to prioritize "journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual."
"I don't want to live in an America where there is no trust in our great institutions," Weiss said on the Tuesday call.
Weiss later added that "not enough people trust us," referring to "the mainstream media."
Weiss has attracted controversy during her first few months at the helm of CBS News.
Her commitment to hard-hitting journalism was questioned inside and outside CBS News after her late-hour decision to pull a "60 Minutes" segment about the Trump administration deporting migrants to the CECOT prison in El Salvador.
Weiss defended her decision to delay the CECOT prison segment in a memo to employees, saying that CBS News had to do "more legwork" to "win back" the trust of American audiences.
The segment eventually aired on "60 Minutes" weeks later, with minor changes to the in-studio postscript, Puck reported.
CBS News head Bari Weiss, seen here interviewing Erika Kirk, has become a lightning rod since she took the job in October.
Michele Crowe/CBS News via Getty Images
One example of Weiss' vision to broaden CBS News' audience by appealing to conservatives was a town hall featuring Erika Kirk, the wife of late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Weiss also installed longtime anchor Tony Dokoupil as host of the "CBS Evening News" program. Dokoupil has supported Weiss' shake-up of the network and has said the mainstream press puts "too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites." He also attracted criticism early in his new role for a softball segment with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Weiss made waves inside the company from the start of her tenure. Just days into her role, she asked staffers to send memos explaining their roles, what they did on a typical day, and how the broadcast network could improve.
On Tuesday, Weiss acknowledged the controversy around her hiring, saying that "in the face of all of this outside noise, you might feel uncertain or skeptical about me."
"What I can give you today is what I've always tried to give my readers and listeners as a journalist," she said. "Transparency, clarity, and straight talk."
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Have a tip or thoughts on Bari Weiss' strategy for CBS News? Contact this reporter via email at jfaris@businessinsider.com or Signal at @jamesfaris.01. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
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