Bari Weiss offers CBS Evening News staff "extraordinary chance" to not work there anymore

Having informed her veteran employees that they're now working for a fast-moving "media startup," the CBS News boss sent out buyout offers to staff on Wednesday.

By William Hughes | January 28, 2026 | 9:08pm

Bari Weiss, Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press

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Bari Weiss offers CBS Evening News staff

Yesterday we reported on an all-hands speech that CBS News head Bari Weiss gave to the team at the veteran TV news organization, informing them that, despite decades of experience, and a reputation as one of the most respected journalism brands in the business, they should now feel free to consider themselves part of product-slingers working for “the best-capitalized media startup in the world.” Weiss also suggested that those who were not interested in trading stolid dependability for a focus on serving up “scoops of ideas”—including, apparently, “Hey, what does my mom think about all this?”—would be getting an opportunity to bail from this runaway train racing toward an ever-rising future of media perfection, noting “Startups aren’t for everyone” and that “If that’s not your bag, that’s okay.”

Today, correspondingly, staffers at CBS Evening News were reportedly offered an “extraordinary chance” to not actually work there anymore. Per THR, Weiss and her higher-ups issued a buyout offer to “all eligible CBS Evening News non-union staff employees” who are “not excited about this vision.” Exact terms for the buyout weren’t made clear in the offer letter making the rounds online, but the statement does say that the offer in question will represent an “enhancement” over what staff would normally get as part of Paramount’s standard severance plan for employees.

In her all-hands on Tuesday, Weiss stated that, “It’s almost impossible to conceive of how fast things will move from here” at the news organization. Certainly, that seems to be the case in this specific instance—in so far as employees have until next Monday, February 2, to make for the lifeboats, or forever hold their peace.

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