CBS News has announced that Ross Douthat, Sebastian Junger, Trevor Phillips and Gianna Toboni will join "60 Minutes", part of a wider overhaul of the long-running newsmagazine under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. The changes come after Weiss ousted several veteran correspondents and producers this year in a bid to make the programme more appealing to digital and younger audiences, a shake-up that has drawn scrutiny given the show's history and its recent 9% rise in viewership.

The new arrivals include Douthat, a conservative New York Times columnist, author Sebastian Junger, former British politician and free-speech advocate Trevor Phillips, and filmmaker Gianna Toboni; anchor Norah O'Donnell will also take on expanded duties. New executive producer Nick Bilton described the group as "entrepreneurial journalists" skilled at reaching modern audiences, though both Douthat and Phillips are known chiefly for opinion writing rather than the investigative reportage "60 Minutes" typically features. The new hires join veteran correspondents Lesley Stahl, Jon Wertheim and Bill Whitaker, following earlier departures including former executive producer Tanya Simon, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega and Scott Pelley, and Anderson Cooper, who left amid unease over the direction of CBS News under Weiss.