’60 Minutes’ Announces New, Big-Name Correspondents & Contributors

More changes for 60 Minutes in the Barri Weiss era. This time, some big names are joining the news magazine as correspondents and contributors, bolstering its ranks after the departures of Scott Pelley, Anderson Cooper, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.

Ross Douthat is joining as a correspondent. As one of the resident conservatives at the New York Times‘ Opinion section, Douthat may help “widen the aperture,” as Weiss put it, “to reflect more of the political friction that animates our national conversation.”

The words “opinion columnist” and 60 Minutes have rarely mixed over the years, except when they were accompanied by the name Andy Rooney. How Douthat’s talents mix with the newsmagazine’s legacy of hard, fact-focused journalism remains to to be seen.

The 46-year-old Douthat is a skilled interviewer. His recent podcast conversations have included the likes of Vice President J.D. Vance and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. He’s not afraid to challenge, say, a billionaire conservative like Peter Thiel on his views about religion and the antichrist.

But Douthat, like the other two new arrivals, does not have the traditional 60 Minutes-level TV resume. Weiss, in her pitch to staffers on the broadcast’s new direction, said in January, “Our strategy until now has been to cling to the audience that remains on broadcast television. If we stick to that strategy, we’re toast.”

Today’s announcement touts the arrivals’ multimedia bona fides, noting that “Between them, they have written books and magazine articles, produced documentaries, TV shows and podcasts, hosted live events and built brands on independent platforms.”

Executive Producer Nick Bilton, who posted the announcement online, also touted the arrival of Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger as a contributor. Bilton calls the author a “generational talent.” Certainly, Junger is a master of longform storytelling in print. Bilton cites Junger’s work covering the war in Afghanistan for ABC News, as well as his time embedded with U.S. combat infantry for what became the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary Restrepo.

Additionally Gianna Toboni, formerly a senior correspondent at Vice News as well as an Emmy-winner, is now a 60 Minutes contributor.

Bilton touted the trio of new hires as “entrepreneurial journalists who understand how to reach modern audiences.”

The announcement included the news that former CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell will be upped to correspondent on the show. Trevor Phillips, who was made Senior Global Affairs Correspondent last month, has been named a contributor.

Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim remain with the show.