Bari Weiss Bluntly Tells CBS News Staff ‘We Are Not Producing a Product Enough People Want’ in Blistering Internal Town Hall

(Sipa via AP Images)

CBS News boss Bari Weiss told staffers they are not putting out enough content that appeals to Americans — while also sharing her strategy to grab more viewers and readers — during an internal town hall meeting on Tuesday.

CNN’s Brian Stelter posted her comments on X. Weiss was frank in her assessment of her team, saying CBS News can only improve after “honestly” looking at its own work — which she is not overly impressed with so far.

“We are not producing a product that enough people want,” Weiss said.

She continued, “We can blame demographics or technology or fractured attention spans or ‘news avoidance’ — but these are all copes.”

Weiss said she has been “blown away” by many of her reporters recently, including Matt Gutman’s work covering anti-ICE protests in Minnesota.

But she said there are two main issues facing CBS right now, with the first one being that not enough people “trust” the outlet or other mainstream shops in general. The polling backs up her claim, with Gallup reporting the American public’s trust in the news dropped to an all-time low in 2025.

The second issue is CBS is not “doing enough to meet” viewers and readers where they are, Weiss said.

She said the CBS strategy up until she arrived was to “cling” to its dwindling broadcast audience. Weiss said that cannot be the case moving forward, or CBS News will be “toast.”

Starting immediately, Weiss wants CBS News to focus on how it can better promote stories on YouTube and emphasize streaming. “We need to shift to a streaming mentality immediately,” she said.

A moment later, she told her crew:

As we move forward, we are not competing primarily for ratings but for audience share. Our competitors are not just the other broadcast networks. We are competing for the attention of anyone in front of a screen.

Her streaming-focused game plan comes after CBS News finished third in the nightly news battle last year. Weiss recently picked Tony Dokoupil to spearhead its revamped CBS Evening News; his first week as anchor failed to boost ratings earlier this month, but his January 19 broadcast pulled in 6.4 million viewers — which was the best night for the program since 2021.

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