CBS head Bari Weiss replaces '60 Minutes' executive producer, 'Time for a new approach'

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has replaced the executive producer of "60 Minutes," saying it is time for a "new approach." 

Nick Bilton, a tech journalist who once served as technology columnist for the New York Times, will now lead the long-form TV news show going after current executive producer, Tanya Simon, leaves, the according to the Associated Press. 

Simon's replacement was announced in a staff memo from Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski that said their goal was to build "a show that thrives in the 21st Century." Bilton, the memo said, would have the "energy and ambition that animated the founders of the show." 

The news magazine first began airing in 1969 along with its trademark ticking stopwatch segue clip. 

In a staff memo, Bilton said that the "world we are reporting on ... has moved. And if we don't move with it ... we won't be here for the next 60 years." 

Weiss, who founded the Free Press website, was hired in October by CBS parent company Paramount Global’s new management.

"60 Minutes" has gone through a series of controversies recently, including Weiss late last year having stopped from airing a story about an El Salvador detention facility in which deportees from the U.S. were being housed. She stopped the story at the last minute over concerns about the depth of its reporting.