The Scoop
CBS News is expanding its investigative journalism efforts as editor-in-chief Bari Weiss continues to reshape the network.
On Monday, the company plans to announce the growth of CBS News’ Investigative Unit, Semafor has learned, an attempt to grow the network’s original reporting and get more attention by publishing and broadcasting high-impact stories. The investigative unit, which Weiss and president Tom Cibrowski want to further expand in the coming months, will look into areas the company hopes to focus on, including health, politics, sports, and waste and fraud in government.
The company plans to announce that it is hiring Washington Post veteran Daniel Gilbert, who was laid off as part of the Post’s large cuts, and Free Press reporter Gabe Kaminsky. It will also move current CBS News reporters Laura Geller, Jake Rosenwasser, and Callie Teitelbaum to the investigative team from their other beats.
The move represents a notable expansion and staffing up on top of the current team. CBS News leadership hopes the investigations can help the network find new audiences online.
“We’re going to invest even more in producing revelatory journalism every day, which is the only kind that is going to matter in the 21st century,” Weiss said during a CBS News town hall earlier this year. “We are going to be putting a huge emphasis on scoops. Not scoops that expire minutes later. But investigative scoops.”
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Weiss’ first six months as CBS News’ first editor-in-chief have been marred by ratings struggles, clashes with talent, and criticism of partisan meddling.
Her decision to stop the publication of a 60 Minutes piece about a Salvadoran prison that had been cleared by others at the network sparked an internal fire that smoldered for weeks until the story eventually aired. Longtime staff have looked at her suspiciously, as she and owner David Ellison rewire the network’s ideology.
She’s also faced more practical challenges, including learning how a network broadcast actually works (she didn’t have any experience in TV production before joining) and the limitations of modern TV budgets (she’s had to do multiple rounds of layoffs).
But in recent weeks, Weiss has begun to put her stamp on the network. She’s brought on new contributors, slotted preferred hosts into different timeslots, and rearranged the network to emphasize priorities like special big-ticket interviews. The push for more splashy reporting that will ripple out beyond the network’s airwaves is a clear part of that strategy. Although costly and time consuming, investigative swings are perhaps the best way to earn journalistic plaudits and prove value to skeptical audiences.