Bari Weiss has been appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News following the acquisition of her media platform The Free Press by Paramount Global.  In her new role, Weiss is overseeing a major restructuring of the newsroom, issuing demands for extensive staff memos, supervising booking decisions, and preparing for potential layoffs. The move marks a clear signal of change at CBS News, which has long lagged behind rivals in ratings and market share.

As part of her overhaul, Weiss is exploring a bold anchor shake-up at the network’s flagship broadcast, CBS Evening News. Among the names reportedly under consideration is Bret Baier of Fox News, a well-known figure under contract through 2028 and earning approximately $14 million annually. Weiss has also considered internal candidates like Norah O’Donnell and Tony Dokoupil. By pursuing a rival network’s star, Weiss’s strategy signals an aspiration to reposition CBS Evening News and capture a broader or different audience.

The staffing and strategic shifts have sparked mixed reactions within the newsroom and among media observers. Some staff members express concern about Weiss’s lack of broadcast journalism experience and question whether her strong ideological views—particularly on Israel and culture-war issues—might influence CBS’s editorial independence. Others view her appointment as overdue, noting that CBS has persistently trailed behind competitors and may benefit from a disruptive reset. “We probably needed a course correction,” one insider said.

Ultimately, Weiss’s arrival and her pursuit of Baier for the evening anchor chair underscore a larger corporate ambition: to revive CBS News’s relevance in a fragmented media landscape and broaden its appeal beyond its traditional viewership. Whether these changes will succeed—or backfire—remains to be seen. For now, CBS News is unmistakably entering a new era of editorial direction and organizational transformation.