After rocky start, Bari Weiss plans cuts, adds commentators at CBS News

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss came in with a mandate to reshape coverage. She laid out her strategy in a staff meeting Tuesday.

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss said she will make the news division “fit for purpose in the 21st Century” at an all-staff meeting Tuesday, in which she outlined her strategy.

Weiss announced the hiring of 18 paid commentators — on subjects ranging from national security to health and wellness — as part of an effort to “widen the aperture of the stories we tell and the voices we listen to.” They include HR McMaster, who served as national security advisor during the first Trump administration; Reihan Salam, the president of the conservative Manhattan Institute; and the historian Niall Ferguson.

She also cited several new hires who are going to produce original reports from Kyiv, London and New York City with a social media-first approach. And she said she only wants top-flight performers committed to her approach to stick around.

Weiss is expected to make significant cuts to the newsroom, though she did not address them in her remarks.