Overview
In a presentation to staff three months after assuming leadership, the editor-in-chief of CBS News laid out a plan intended to reshape the nearly century-old broadcaster. Central to the pitch was a formula she has used previously: recruit commentators who offer interpretive perspectives on news, politics and culture, and expand the newsroom's reach through podcasts, newsletters and live events. The proposal envisions a larger, cross-platform stable of personalities who can appear on television, digital platforms and in public forums.
The plan calls for adding 19 new commentators, some of whom would come from the editor-in-chief's prior media company. The roster she unveiled includes contributors drawn from a range of backgrounds and specialties - spanning politics, health, happiness, food and culture - and she encouraged newsroom staff to deploy those contributors on air. The names mentioned in the presentation included a mix of established and younger figures, among them a conservative Hoover Institution scholar and a former editor focused on youth culture.
Reaction inside the newsroom
Employees reacted in varying ways to the blueprint. Several current and former CBS News staffers and industry insiders described responses ranging from energized to deeply skeptical. Some said the emphasis on opinion and commentators appeared to conflict with the newsroom's stated mission of producing rigorous, primary-sourced journalism.
“It’s like saying ‘Hey, Hollywood. Why can’t you just be like Leonardo DiCaprio?’ If people knew how to bottle that magic and make someone a star, they would do it,”said a former CBS employee, expressing skepticism about the notion that star-making can be systematized.
An industry veteran who also commented said the idea implied a lack of appreciation for television's historical capacity to elevate personalities - pointing to past network anchors as evidence of television's longstanding role in creating recognizable news figures.
The editor-in-chief, who is 41 years old and has no prior broadcast experience, has been described by six current and former CBS News sources as a distant leader. That fact, combined with the scale of the proposed changes, has heightened scrutiny of her ability to execute the strategy and to attract new audiences, particularly younger viewers and political independents who may feel underrepresented by mainstream media. Several sources noted the difficulty of this task, referencing executives at other outlets who struggled to turn around legacy television audiences.
Not all internal commentary was hostile. A current staffer speaking on background urged patience and said colleagues were inclined to give the new leader time to show results:
“People are saying, ’Let’s give her a chance’ ... I want to see her succeed. If she succeeds, we all succeed.”
The network and the editor-in-chief did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Strategic priorities and tensions
The editor-in-chief joined CBS following the acquisition of her five-year-old media company by the parent owner in October for $150 million. That transaction brought her and several of her company's assets into the broader corporate structure.
Her advocates view the commentator-driven playbook as a way to broaden the network's political and cultural reach, reflecting what she described as a need for CBS News to mirror the friction present in the national conversation. One veteran media executive suggested that, by incorporating a wider range of viewpoints, the network could stake out space that leans center-right while also remaining a national news organization.
Yet some staffers and an industry observer warned that building a commentator roster could be at odds with other newsroom imperatives, including breaking news coverage and in-depth investigations.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,”said a former employee, acknowledging the commentator strategy but questioning whether it should be presented as the core purpose of a news division. Another current staffer highlighted persistent operational shortfalls in digital promotion, saying bluntly,
“We have done a wretched job of being on the internet.”
In her address to staff, the editor-in-chief explicitly called for commissioning and greenlighting stories that would generate surprise and provocation, including those that might challenge perspectives within the newsroom.
“We need to commission and greenlight stories that will surprise and provoke - including inside our own newsroom,”she said.
“We also have to widen the aperture of the stories we tell.”
Programming outcomes to date
Results since the leadership change have been mixed. The network has drawn criticism for at least one television segment that was widely panned: a profile that placed a high-profile cabinet member into a series of meme-like vignettes and framed him as an emblematic regional character. At the same time, the network secured interviews and scoops that industry observers flagged as journalistic wins.
Examples of these early successes include a long-form interview conducted by a senior correspondent with a White House adviser and another figure identified as a special envoy; those interviews aired within a week of a peace deal between Israel and Hamas. In addition, a high-profile Sunday program secured an interview with a former president. The company also paid a settlement of $16 million to resolve a lawsuit related to editing of an interview with a then-vice-presidential figure.
The newsroom also landed exclusives such as an interview with the person who charged one of two attackers at a community gathering in Sydney, and video footage tied to a fatal Border Patrol incident in Minneapolis that showed a man reading a tribute to a veteran who died in 2024.
Talent and format mix
Announced new contributors span ideological and demographic lines. The editor-in-chief highlighted both a conservative academic affiliated with a well-known policy institution and a younger cultural editor with experience at youth-oriented outlets. Supporters of the effort praised the inclusion of diverse age groups and ideological perspectives as a way to improve newsroom representation. At the same time, observers cautioned that an increased emphasis on opinion risks overshadowing reporting grounded in primary sources. As one journalism academic put it,
“Newsrooms can’t do a good job unless we have that diversity in our ranks. What worries me is the emphasis on opinion over primary-sourced, reported facts.”
Digital strategy and audience challenges
The new leadership is prioritizing a digital-first distribution approach, with the aim of making content available online before television airings in order to reach younger and platform-oriented audiences. That objective faces structural headwinds: the news division has long trailed two major broadcast rivals in audience rankings and, like many mainstream outlets, is coping with declines as consumers shift toward social platforms.
Research cited internally indicates that podcasts have become an important part of news consumption habits, with an estimated one-third of adults obtaining some news via podcast. Despite that trend, the network's news offerings do not appear in the top 50 news podcasts on major podcast platforms, an absence that one former employee said underscores the operational work still required to build a consistent digital presence.
Operational gaps extend to social and streaming optimization. One former news employee predicted the digital-first goal would be complicated by insufficient investment in helping correspondents and anchors refine their social media reach or in re-editing televised interviews for platforms like YouTube and streaming services.
Organizational positioning
Internally, the editor-in-chief urged staff to regard the newsroom as a well-capitalized media startup with corporate support to enact rapid change.
“We are in a position, with the support of all of the leadership of this company, to really make the change we need,”she told employees.
Whether that positioning and the attendant strategy will yield sustainable audience growth, preserve the newsroom's investigative capacity, and reconcile divergent views inside the staff remains uncertain to insiders and outside observers. The initial reactions and mixed programmatic results illustrate a newsroom in the midst of a strategic transition, balancing ambitions to broaden its footprint with questions about core journalistic priorities.
Summary
Within three months of taking the top editorial role, the CBS News leader proposed a pivot emphasizing commentators, digital-first distribution, and live events. The plan has generated both enthusiasm and pushback from staff and industry observers concerned about potential tension with breaking news and investigative reporting. Early programming under the new strategy produced notable scoops and interviews alongside a segment that attracted widespread criticism. The longer-term impact on audience composition and journalistic output remains to be seen.