CBS News Names Nick Bilton Executive Producer of 60 Minutes

CBS News announced on Thursday that Nick Bilton will serve as the next executive producer of 60 Minutes. Bilton replaces Tanya Simon, who had held the interim role for slightly more than one year. Paramount, the owner of CBS News, stated that Bilton is the program's fifth executive producer and the first with experience outside traditional television.

In a memo to staff, Bilton wrote that he intends to lead the program rather than preserve it unchanged. He noted that the media environment has shifted since the show's 1968 debut and said he has ideas about the show's format, future correspondents, and the schedule of one weekly hour in a continuous news cycle.

Bari Weiss, chief editor at CBS News, said in a statement that Bilton shares the goal of expanding the program's reach through investigative reporting and adapting its journalism for current audiences.

The appointment follows the exit of correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who told colleagues on Wednesday that she was leaving after an editorial dispute over a December story about the deportation of migrants to El Salvador's CECOT prison. Her departure coincided with the end of her contract.

Bilton previously worked as a technology columnist at The New York Times and as an investigative journalist at Vanity Fair. He has also produced documentaries for Netflix and HBO.