What stands at the center of a modern journalism organization in 2025: hot takes or hot news?
Paramount seems poised to choose one over the other when it comes to CBS News. The company has been in talks with Bari Weiss, founder of the successful online outlet The Free Press, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, that could have the large media conglomerate buy Weiss’ company and give her a senior-level position at the former home of Walter Cronkite and Edward R Murrow.
The issue? Well, there are many. Weiss’ writing is admired by those in the field, but her acumen with analyzing topics and expressing opinions doesn’t necessarily qualify her to run a large mainstream news organization. Leading CBS News requires expertise with a visual product; managing a staff of journalists around the globe, as well as their security and transport needs; and, perhaps most of all, maintaining the broad appeal of venerable shows like “60 Minutes,” “Sunday Morning” and “Face the Nation.”
What’s more, Weiss has taken hard positions on several issues, including support for Israel, and pointed out flaws in extreme left-wing views. There’s nothing wrong with grappling with tough topics and devising a convincing opinion on them — unless you’re running a news division that is trained to avoid such stuff.
Any deal that injects Weiss into CBS News will make for some unorthodox alchemy. On Thursday evening, the front page of The Free Press featured a look at the factors that motivate young people to become influencers, under the headline “Why Gen Z Hates Work,” as well as a preview of the first novel by director, author and comedian Woody Allen and an interview with Andy Ngo, a journalist who tracks leftist extremism. Viewers of CBS News, however, flock to segments like “On the Road,” a long-running feature that sends correspondent Steve Hartman in search of heartwarming tales from around the country, or a “Sunday Morning” interview with longtime rocker John Fogerty.
“This would be like trying to cross a lion with a ferret — the offspring are likely to be terribly ugly, if they even manage to survive the gestation phase,” says Mark Feldstein, chair of the broadcast journalism department at University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. “Seasoned journalists would leave CBS in droves if this comes to pass. I also think there would also be a real risk of CBS losing its traditional core audience and killing what was once such a respected brand. Not to mention the loss for citizens who once relied on CBS for independent truth-telling journalism. This is deeply disturbing.”
Inside CBS News, senior producers and rank-and-file staffers are confused. David Ellison, who took control of Paramount just a few weeks ago via his production company, Skydance, made the news division one of his first stops on the day ownership of Paramount transferred to him from previous custodian Shari Redstone. According to two people familiar with the matter, Ellison complimented the staff and the work they do, expressing admiration for both news leadership and the journalistic process.
Since that time, Paramount has done a lot to undermine any good feelings that may have resulted from that meeting. A decision to forgo editing of newsmaker interviews on “Face the Nation” after complaints from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made after some false or unproven statements she made were deleted from what CBS presented on air, is seen by people inside and outside the company as an accommodation made without any ties to actual editorial standards. The naming of a former Trump adviser and conservative think-tank leader, Kennth Weinstein, as an ombudsman with duties that entail handling complaints about CBS News reports is also unnerving. Such posts usually aren’t filled by people who have publicly upheld particular political agenda.
Weiss is “brilliant” and “provocative,” notes Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington Bureau chief who is a professor and director of strategic initiatives at the School of Media & Public Affairs at George Washington University. Still, he says, “the question really is about what is Bari Weiss’ understanding about the job? Is she willing to do it? And is there an institutional commitment to doing journalism that is independent and willing to hold the powerful to account?” he asks. In the earliest days of new Paramount ownership, Sesno says, “I am very concerned about the broader institutional commitment to what journalism is and should be.”
The new Paramount is in some ways picking up someone else’s playbook. In 2017, NBCUniversal thought it could tap the on-screen talents of Megyn Kelly, another provocateur who courted center-right audiences. Kelly, so it was believed, would help NBC gain favor with the Republican crowd, which was ascendant as President Donald Trump seized his first term in office. But NBC really didn’t know what to do with the Fox News favorite once they got hold of her. Audiences for NBC News programs — a much broader demographic than the one tuning in Fox News — didn’t know much about Kelly, and the programs NBC set up for her (a Sunday newsmagazine and a mid-morning talk show) are challenging enough to get off the ground even if the hosts had the show-biz appeal of Tom Cruise and Gwyneth Paltrow.
What’s more, Kelly was scrutinized endlessly, from the subjects of her newsmagazine statements to her on-air blast of Jane Fonda to the way she danced one day with Hoda Kotb. Her arrival brought NBC a circus that never seemed to come off the road. As the relationship between anchor and media owner grew more tense, a segment about people wearing “blackface” on Halloween proved offensive, and spurred NBC to cancel the morning program.
“Why would you go into mainstream media right now?” Kelly asked recently on a digital program she controls, which reaches a more like-minded audience. “I just don’t understand the allure, and I really don’t understand the allure to go to a television network, which is not Bari’s background at all,” she said, adding: “I’m worried they’re going to eat her alive.” Kelly would know.
Paramount could face other unique issues with a Weiss hire. She is a public figure. Most newsroom chiefs inhabit off camera lives and don’t host spirited podcasts or contribute spiky opinion columns. Weiss’ activity in those areas, if it were to continue, would open CBS News to new claims of bias: Is CBS News reporting facts, or assembling them to fit the previous positions expressed by one of its most senior editorial executives? Her work in the past will do the same. “She has been a media partisan,” says Sesno. “That presents a conflict of interest.”
Paramount has some reason to tinker with CBS News. Two of its flagship programs, “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Evening News,” have long resided in third place, ceding critical viewers to NBC and ABC. At the same time, the news division produces TV’s killer Sunday lineup of “Face the Nation,” “Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes.” These programs are some of the most-watched non-sports offerings in the medium, and undermining their credibility could spur declines in audience as well as ad dollars.
Paramount CEO David Ellison recently suggested he envisioned a news division that can “speak to the biggest audience possible,” with journalism that appeals to approximately 70% of Americans who range “from center left to center right.” But Weiss’ Free Press, according to recent press reports, has approximately 1.5 million subscribers overall, a figure that does not break out how many pay for access to its content.
In TV, that number would get most programs canceled. Indeed, even the third place “CBS Evening News,” which has seen viewership drop since overhauling its familiar format earlier this year, drew an average of 3.87 million viewers last week. Meanwhile, “60 Minutes” courted an average audience of nearly 8.6 million viewers in its most recent season.
Many billionaires have tinkered with mainstream news properties in recent years, and several efforts have left the assets in worse shape than when they began. The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times have seen layoffs and circulation drops under the aegis of Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong, and suffered reputational hits as the owners messed around with their properties’ journalistic independence.
Meanwhile, CBS News in its current state enjoys some of the most widespread support among people who trust mainstream news organizations – one of the largest potential audiences for CBS’ news programming. Among U.S. adults who have at least some trust in the information they get from national news organizations, according to Pew Research Center, 51% trust CBS News. Only ABC News and NBC News have more trust among this group, and CBS News is on par with both CNN and PBS.
Clearly, there’s some room for improvement. What CBS News could probably use is broader distribution. It’s no secret that CBS ceded eight affiliates in 1994 when it lost NFL rights to Fox the year prior. That has crimped the network’s ability to compete more directly with NBC and ABC on several fronts. That said, CBS boasts many first-place programs in primetime and in its Sunday lineup – as well as its “Late Show” hosted by Stephen Colbert. Paramount is canceling that program in May, and the results of that decision remain to be seen, though CBS executives have said the economics of that program could no longer be sustained.
If the Ellisons want to spend big money to improve Paramount’s footing, they could try to get hold of new stations. That might be a more sure-fire way of adding CBS News’ linear distribution. Sinclair Inc., one of the nation’s largest station owners, said in August it would conduct a review of its broadcast assets that could result in a possible sale, among other possible transactions. Nexstar, another large station owner, has made a bid to acquire Tegna, which would boost its local linear holdings. Clearly, the market is hot.
Bringing Weiss aboard as an editorial leader might also warm things up — but the success of that idea is far from guaranteed. If Paramount is looking for a firebrand to tilt at current journalism convention and play conservatives against liberals, and vice-versa, they will certainly cultivate more attention, but they will likely suffer from constant leaks and staff defections.
Clearly, Bari Weiss knows how to make headlines — but are they of the sort that attracts broad-based viewership? And does Paramount care?