Bari Weiss has faced significant backlash for her decision to shut down CBS News Radio, a 99-year-old institution with an estimated weekly audience of 20 million listeners. Larry Magid, who worked at the division for over two decades before transitioning to a contributor role in 2020, criticizes Weiss for lacking understanding of traditional broadcast media's value. Despite claims that CBS News Radio might not have been profitable, Magid believes it was generating revenue and dismisses the decision as illogical given its audience reach and public service value.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-19,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Since taking the reins at CBS News, Bari Weiss has faced a chorus of criticism and second guessing.
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Weiss → take → criticism
But one move stands out as particularly illogical: Eliminating the entire CBS News Radio operation.
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move → stand → operation
The division represented a mere drop in the bucket for the network’s overall broadcast budget.
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division → represent → budget
Also on the plus side, CBS News Radio was a 99-year-old institution that reached an estimated 20 million listeners a week — a far bigger audience than the network’s “Evening News With Tony Dokoupil,” which is lucky to surpass 4 million viewers.
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which → reach → viewers
Larry Magid, who worked for CBS News Radio for more than two decades before segueing to a contributor role in 2020 with his nationally distributed “The ConnectSafely Report,” was among the most recognized voices affected by the division’s dismantling.
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who → work → dismantling
“She definitely does not care about traditional media,” Magid says of Weiss.
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Magid → care → Weiss
“She may care about podcasting.
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She → care → podcasting
She may care about blogging.
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She → care → blogging
But it doesn’t strike me that she has a real understanding of the value of traditional broadcast.”
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she → strike → broadcast
It is unclear if the division was eking out a small profit or hemorrhaging money.
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division → eke → money
A New York Times story in March claimed (with thin attribution) that CBS News was “unprofitable,” according to “a person familiar with the company.”
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News → claim → company
The Los Angeles Times also insisted that monthly revenues recently fell “as low as $67,000, according to a network executive not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.”
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revenues → insist → matter
But Magid believes the division was in the black.
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division → believe → black
“I’m told that it actually made some money, that it wasn’t a losing proposition,” he says“I’m told that it actually made some money, that it wasn’t a losing proposition,” he says.
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he → tell → money
“Even if it made a dime, as a public service, to kill it, it doesn’t make sense.”
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it → make → sense
It made little sense to the some 70 staffers we told you about in March who sat through Weiss’ tone deaf speech that appeared to be cribbed from Wikipedia.
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that → make → Wikipedia
Meanwhile, the medium’s market share continues to impress.
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share → continue → ?
A Nielsen report from earlier this year found that “radio reaches 93% of all U.S. adults each month, making it the top-reaching media platform in the country.”
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it → find → country
The report noted the broad spread of car-bound listeners.
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report → note → listeners
“That reach extends across demographics, including 93% of Black consumers and 94% of Hispanic consumers,” the report stated.
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report → extend → consumers
“Even among the hard-to-reach 18-34 audience, radio reaches 89% of the population.”
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radio → reach → population
Magid, who recorded the final segment for CBS News Radio on May 22, was “devastated” by Weiss’ indiscriminate swing of the axe.
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who → record → axe
But the veteran tech journalist quickly bounced back.
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journalist → bounce → ?
By May 29, “ConnectSafely Report” — a twice-weekly, one-minute feature on online safety, privacy, security and AI (timely!) — returned through its new independent distribution network without missing a single episode.
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Report → return → episode
Before CBS News Radio went dark, its affiliate manager called Magid and gave him the list of the stations that carried “ConnectSafely Report.”
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that → go → Report
Many of them said, ‘Yeah, we want to continue, please send it to us,” Magid recalls.
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Magid → say → us
Fifteen stations now carry the program in top markets like Boston, Chicago and Washington, and Magid says the list is growing.
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list → carry → Boston
Even better, he is working from his home studio in the Bay Area, which is way more luxe than what Weiss had turned the CBS News Radio digs into months before it shuttered.
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it → work → digs
“Bari shrunk it to a room about the size of a small bedroom by the time they pulled the plug.
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they → shrink → plug
It was tiny,” Magid says before comparing it to the grand pre-Weiss studio.
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Magid → say → studio
“That was huge and was the newsroom that Walter Cronkite operated out of in the old days.”
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Cronkite → operate → days
The Aporia
