Susan Zirinsky on her CBS News presidency | Variety & Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit
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00:00I agreed to take the presidency for two years when some people were acting badly.
00:06Not a job I wanted.
00:07But the changes on the entire CBS is it's a reconceptualization of taking a news division
00:15into the future.
00:17Wendy McMahon is a visionary.
00:20And it is a rethink of how a news division can work for a future generation.
00:28Global integration with stations.
00:30New very, very advanced equipment and hardware.
00:34And the evening news, we are the first network to take the plunge in doing a rethink.
00:41How best to serve the audience.
00:44And it will be on every platform.
00:46But we're going to go where people are watching.
00:49But I put Nora in Washington and I have no regrets.
00:53Nora is incredibly smart.
00:55And Washington distinguished us from the other kids.
01:00But what's happening now is the acknowledgment that the evening news, while really important,
01:07needs to have a different face and a different function to integrate into the future.
01:14And that's where I think Wendy has really taken everything.
01:20Integration with stations.
01:23It's a miracle happening.
01:25This is the biggest change at CBS since Douglas Edwards sat down for a 15-minute broadcast.
01:32But here's the good news.
01:34And there's no bad news in this.
01:36But Bill Owens, 60 Minutes executive producer, who I have just enormous respect for, he's
01:42been tapped to help conceptualize this new evening news.
01:47The executive producer, who I'm proud to say was my mentee many years ago, Guy Campanile
01:53is going to be the executive producer.
01:55But by putting those people in that place, you're moving forward, but you're holding
02:02on to that with which CBS feels so protective of, our status as the best journalism, credibility.
02:12And it's very comforting within our network to have those people as the reconceptualizers
02:22to take us into the future.
02:24You know what?
02:25The train has left the station.
02:27Next stop, future.
02:29I have a sign on my desk that says, do epic shit.
02:35I'm going to send it over to Wendy.