CBS News is being rebuilt in public. Here is the dated record of what has actually happened so far

Nine months is not long to remake a news division. It is long enough to close a radio service that had been broadcasting since 1927.

CBS News has been changing continuously since October 2025, when Paramount Skydance acquired The Free Press and made its co-founder Bari Weiss the first person to hold the title of editor-in-chief of CBS News. The changes have arrived the way institutional changes usually do — a memo here, a departure there, a trade story every few weeks quoting people who were not authorised to speak. Read one at a time, it is genuinely difficult to tell what has happened from what somebody expects to happen.

So here is the record, dated, with the two kinds of item kept apart.

What is settled

A newspaper opinion editor now runs a broadcast news division. Weiss left The New York Times in 2020, started a Substack newsletter that became The Free Press, and built it into a subscription media company. Paramount, under chairman and chief executive David Ellison, bought that company and gave its founder the top editorial job at CBS News. She had not previously run a television news operation. That is not a criticism; it is the material fact that everything since follows from.

A finished segment was pulled. In December 2025, Weiss pulled a completed '60 Minutes' piece on the administration's deportation policy hours before it was due to air. It drew public criticism inside and outside the network, and it is the moment the story stopped being about a personnel appointment.

Roughly 6% of the division was cut, and radio was closed. In March 2026, Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski told staff by memo that the division would cut about 6% of its workforce and shut CBS News Radio. Reporting put the radio job losses at roughly 60 to 70 positions. The service had been on air since September 1927, supplying audio to an estimated 700 affiliated stations, among them WINS in New York, KNX in Los Angeles, WBBM in Chicago, KCBS in San Francisco and WTOP in Washington. It went off the air on May 22, 2026 — one year short of its hundredth anniversary.

'60 Minutes' was restructured, starting with firings. The programme finished its 58th season on May 17, 2026. Within two weeks the overhaul began, reported as a move toward investigative work and away from what the new leadership regards as softer programming.

Follow the Record

CBS News under Bari Weiss: a dated record of what has been announced, closed, cut and reported

Every documented step from the October 2025 Free Press acquisition to the summer of 2026 — the appointment, the pulled segment, the layoffs, the end of a 99-year-old radio service, and the '60 Minutes' overhaul — with confirmed events separated from expected ones.

Allconfirmedexpected

1. October 6, 2025

   Paramount Skydance buys The Free Press; Bari Weiss becomes editor-in-chief

   Paramount, under chairman and chief executive David Ellison, acquires The Free Press and installs its co-founder as the first person ever to hold the title of editor-in-chief of CBS News. Weiss left The New York Times in 2020, started the newsletter that became The Free Press, and had never run a broadcast news division.

   Source ↗

2. November 2025

   The first month is reported as a culture clash

   Reporting on Weiss's opening weeks describes a newsroom divided over the new leadership's direction. This is press coverage of internal dynamics, not a company announcement.

   Source ↗

3. December 2025

   A '60 Minutes' segment on deportation policy is pulled hours before air

   Weiss pulls a completed '60 Minutes' piece on the administration's deportation policy shortly before broadcast, prompting public criticism inside and outside the network. It is the first editorial intervention of her tenure to become a story in its own right.

   Source ↗

4. March 2026

   A second round of layoffs, and the end of CBS News Radio

   Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski tell staff by memo that the division will cut about 6% of its workforce and close CBS News Radio, which has been on air since September 1927 and supplies an estimated 700 affiliated stations. Reporting put the radio job losses at roughly 60 to 70 positions.

   Source ↗

5. May 17, 2026

   '60 Minutes' finishes its 58th season

   The programme wraps for the year. The end of the season is what clears the way for the restructuring that follows within a fortnight.

   Source ↗

6. May 22, 2026

   CBS News Radio goes off the air after 99 years

   The service ends, one year short of its centenary. Its audio had been carried by stations including WINS in New York, KNX in Los Angeles, WBBM in Chicago, KCBS in San Francisco and WTOP in Washington.

   Source ↗

7. Late May 2026

   The '60 Minutes' overhaul begins with firings

   The restructuring of the network's flagship newsmagazine starts with several dismissals, reported as a shift toward investigative work and away from what the new leadership regards as softer programming.

   Source ↗

8. Summer 2026· expected

   Gayle King is reported as expected to leave 'CBS Mornings'

   Trade reporting says the long-serving co-anchor is expected to step back from the morning programme next year after more than a decade, with the possibility of remaining at CBS News in another capacity. She recently renewed her contract. No departure has been announced by the company, and nothing has happened yet.

   Source ↗

How this is calculated

One entry per documented event, ordered by date. An entry is marked 'confirmed' when the event was announced by the company or reported by multiple independent outlets — an appointment, a closure, a season ending. It is marked 'expected' when it rests on reporting about something that has not happened yet, such as an anchor's anticipated departure. Where only a month is firmly established, the entry is dated to that month and the label says so rather than inventing a day. Anonymous-source reporting is described as reporting, never restated as an accomplished fact.

Data as of July 25, 2026 · verified July 25, 2026 · v1

Assumptions, limitations & sources

Assumptions

• · Dates reflect when an event was announced or took effect, as reported at the time.
• · Entries describe the news division, not Paramount Skydance as a whole.

Limitations

• · Several entries rest on trade reporting rather than company statements. Where that is the case the entry says so, but trade reporting can be incomplete or later corrected.
• · Internal decisions that were never announced or reported are, by definition, missing.
• · Headcount figures reported by different outlets do not always reconcile, because rounds overlapped and some counted the whole Paramount organisation rather than the news division. Figures here are attributed to what was reported for the specific round described.
• · An 'expected' entry is not a prediction by this newsroom. It records that someone else reported an expectation, and it will be re-graded when the thing does or does not happen.

Sources

• Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News as Paramount acquires The Free Press — CBS News, checked July 25, 2026
• CBS News chief Bari Weiss pulls '60 Minutes' story, sparking outcry — NPR, checked July 25, 2026
• CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss pulls '60 Minutes' piece on Trump deportation policy hours before air — PBS News, checked July 25, 2026
• CBS News shutters its storied radio news service after nearly a century, ending an era — NBC News, checked July 25, 2026
• CBS News Radio to shutter amid news division cuts — Deadline, checked July 25, 2026
• CBS News to lay off 6% of staff, shut down CBS News Radio service — Variety, checked July 25, 2026
• Bari Weiss begins overhaul at CBS's '60 Minutes' with several firings — AllSides, checked July 25, 2026
• Is Bari Weiss breaking the news? '60 Minutes' firings spur fear at CBS — Variety, checked July 25, 2026
• Gayle King expected to depart 'CBS Mornings' in latest restructure under new leader Bari Weiss — Yahoo News, checked July 25, 2026
• Bari Weiss's first month at CBS News unfolds in a newsroom culture clash — The Washington Post, checked July 25, 2026

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What is not settled

Gayle King's departure. Trade reporting says the long-serving 'CBS Mornings' co-anchor is expected to step back from the programme next year after more than a decade, possibly staying at CBS News in another role. She recently renewed her contract. No departure has been announced by the company and nothing has happened. It is in the timeline above, marked as expected, because that is what it is.

The headcount arithmetic. Different outlets have reported different totals for what has been cut, because the rounds overlapped and some counts covered the whole Paramount organisation rather than the news division. Where the numbers conflict, we have attributed them to the specific round described rather than adding them together.

Whether any of this works. That is the question the industry is actually arguing about, and it does not have an answer yet. The metrics that would settle it — audience, subscription revenue, the quality of what '60 Minutes' broadcasts next season — are months away.

The questions readers are asking

Who runs CBS News now? Bari Weiss is editor-in-chief; Tom Cibrowski is president of the division. Paramount Skydance is the parent company.

Why was CBS News Radio shut down? The company cited changes in how radio stations programme news and the economics of supplying it. It was announced as part of the same round as the 6% cut.

Is '60 Minutes' cancelled? No. It finished its 58th season in May and is being restructured, not ended.

Is Gayle King leaving CBS? She is reported as expected to leave the morning programme next year. That is reporting about an expectation, not an announcement, and it has not happened.

Did Bari Weiss really kill a story? She pulled a completed '60 Minutes' segment on deportation policy shortly before it was due to air in December 2025. That is documented by multiple outlets. Her reasoning has been characterised in various ways by people on different sides of it; the decision itself is not in dispute.

What happened to CBS Evening News and the correspondents? Multiple rounds of cuts across 2025 and 2026 affected on-air staff and correspondents. Individual departures have been reported separately, and where the date or the round is unclear we have left them out rather than guess.

Why this matters

CBS News is not a small thing being reorganised. It is one of three legacy American broadcast news divisions, and what happens to it sets a reference point for what the other two can do.

The interesting question is not whether change was needed — every legacy news organisation is being asked that, and most have answered it with layoffs. It is narrower: whether an editorial leader brought in from outside broadcast, with a mandate to change the culture, can rebuild the thing without spending its credibility on the way. That is genuinely undecided. The pulled segment is the argument for pessimism. The next '60 Minutes' season is the argument that has not been made yet.

We will re-verify this timeline as the autumn schedule comes together, and re-grade the entries that are currently marked expected.