Bari Weiss to CBS News staff: Without a shift in strategy, ‘we are toast’

The editor in chief said the network needs to produce journalism people want as she named a raft of new contributors from her website, the Free Press.

Bari Weiss has two jobs. Since October, she has been the editor in chief of CBS News, a high-profile position that has put her under intense scrutiny from network staffers and outside critics.

But she never gave up her old gig running the Free Press, a conservative opinion website that CBS’s parent company bought for $150 million. After a few months of modest overlap, including some Free Press staffers appearing on network streaming shows, Weiss has moved to accelerate the convergence of the two starkly different media brands.

In a CBS News all-staff meeting Tuesday, Weiss announced a new slate of network contributors, many of whom are on the Free Press’s roster of writers, according to audio of the meeting reviewed by The Washington Post.