Bari Weiss tells CBS News staff they're 'not producing a product that enough people want'

Polarizing CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss detailed her plans for the organization during an all-hands town hall event Tuesday, telling staffers they are "not producing a product that enough people want" by focusing on linear television. 

Weiss, who was handpicked by CEO David Ellison, was formally named editor-in-chief of CBS News in October after her outlet, The Free Press, was acquired by Paramount. The move was met with both internal and external criticism, with some citing her opinion background and lack of television experience. Others, however, have welcomed the move, noting that CBS News trailed ABC and NBC in most metrics and needed to evolve. 

"I need to start by acknowledging that there's been a lot of noise around me taking this job. … I get it. I also get why, in the face of all this tumult, you might feel uncertain or skeptical about me or what I'm aiming to do here. I'm not going to stand up here today and ask you for your trust. I'm going to earn it, just like we have to do with our viewers," Weiss told staffers, according to a transcript of her prepared remarks obtained by Fox News Digital. 

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"So, here it is as plain as I can say it: I am here to make CBS News fit for purpose in the 21st century," she continued. "Our industry has changed more in the last decade than in the last 150 years and the transformation isn't over yet. Far from it. It's almost impossible to conceive of how fast things will move from here."

New York-based staffers attended the event in person, and it was streamed live to the Washington, London and Los Angeles bureaus. CBS News employees in the field were able to attend the meeting remotely. Weiss displayed an image of CBS News legend Walter Cronkite and said she understood the nostalgia for the network's glory days. 

"Back then, 30 million people watched Walter Cronkite every night. Some were on the left, some were on the right. But they trusted him," Weiss said. "Through Cronkite, they inhabited a shared world with shared facts and a shared sense of reality. We can't reverse time's arrow. He had two competitors. We have two billion, give or take.

"What we can do is what journalists do best: look at the world as it actually is. We have to start by looking honestly at ourselves," Weiss continued. "We are not producing a product that enough people want."

Weiss told staffers they can blame demographics, technology, fractured attention spans or even "news avoidance," but she said those explanations are simply "copes." 

"The reality is twofold. First, not enough people trust us. Not you. Us. As in the mainstream media. We can debate why that is, but the numbers tell the story. According to a recent Gallup poll, just 28% of people say we have their trust," she said. 

"Second, we are not doing enough to meet audiences where they are," Weiss continued. "So, they are leaving us. They are not tuning out. Far from it. In fact, Americans spend twice as much time consuming news today as they did 50 years ago."

Weiss, who has irked "60 Minutes" staffers by delaying a report on the notorious El Salvador prison CECOT, raised eyebrows among media insiders by reportedly coveting anchors already under contract with other networks and being accused of carrying water for President Donald Trump's administration, told the CBS News staff that Americans are turning to podcasts, YouTube, newsletters and "our nimbler competitors." 

"Our strategy until now has been to cling to the audience that remains on broadcast television. If we stick to that strategy, we're toast. Starting now, we all must focus first on what we're building, not on what we're maintaining," Weiss said. 

Weiss said CBS News will attempt to increase its audience by "marrying the journalistic principles that will never change - seeking the truth, serving the public and ferociously guarding our independence - with the tools that constantly are" and insisted the organization can still "do what the wild west of social media cannot." 

Weiss then praised a handful of reporters and thanked fellow CBS News executives before declaring "revelatory journalism" is the only thing that matters going forward. 

"Social media and now AI is making basic information a commodity. But the job of reporting -o f telling viewers something they did not know - of revealing, of explaining, and, crucially, of discerning … that is not a commodity. Those are skills that are valuable and special and deeply human," Weiss said. 

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She called for an emphasis on "scoops" and said she was bothered that so many employees do not feel comfortable "raising their hands or pitching ideas that are out of step with the consensus." 

"That's not the kind of newsroom I am interested in running. To cover America as it actually is, we in this building need to reflect more of the political friction that animates our national conversation," Weiss said. 

Weiss said much of CBS News still has a "linear mentality" and needs to "immediately" shift to a streaming approach. 

"Ultimately, streaming will become the primary and eventually the only way that people interact with what we make," she said.

"Right now, the majority of our revenue comes from advertisers on linear television," Weiss continued. "In a streaming future, our revenue depends on how critically important - how indispensable - we are to our audience, wherever and whenever we reach them."

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The CBS News boss stressed that "winning isn't all about ratings" and said she aims to make content that people "can't live without," suggesting podcasts, newsletters and live journalism events will be part of the plan. 

Weiss quickly put her stamp on the network, naming Tony Dokoupil as the new anchor of "CBS Evening News," but didn't spend much time meeting rank-and-file staffers. Now that the flagship evening news program is "in good hands," Weiss told employees she would be taking time for coffee, lunches, meetings and "perhaps" a whiskey to get to know everyone.

"I realize that none of these ideas are revolutionary on their own. What's different now is that the stakes are so very high. And the hour is late. And we are in a position, with the support of all of the leadership of this company, to really make the change we need," Weiss said.