Wendy McMahon Left CBS. She's Not Done Making News

In Exit Interview, Marie Claire has a candid conversation with someone who’s left their job. We learn all about their experience—both the good and the bad—plus why they decided to leave and what life looks like on the other side.

Here, we talk to Wendy McMahon, who stunned the media world last year when she resigned as CEO and President of CBS News and Stations. After four years leading the network news division through a period of profound transformation, she is now advising Beehiiv, a platform that connects independent reporters with major institutions and newsrooms. In this conversation, McMahon reflects on her decision to walk away, what leadership truly demands in moments of crisis, and what keeps her hopeful about the future of journalism.

What guided your decision to resign from CBS?

The company and I didn’t agree on the path forward. That is the reality. As a leader, as a CEO within an organization, when you sense misalignment, when you believe your vision and your values are at odds with how the business is moving—that’s your cue, right? Then you have a decision to make. And that's a deeply personal decision; I know it was for me. But once I recognized that we weren't aligned, then ultimately it became clear that I would end up resigning, which is what happened.

I think it always starts with your gut, that sense of unease. When you have that, I do think you have to challenge your gut and surround yourself with people who are going to be real truth-tellers versus your cheerleaders. And I think it’s important to really identify and know for yourself: Am I running from something, or am I running toward something? That’s how I ultimately arrived at that decision.

Can you share what that moment felt like for you?

It was equal parts exhilarating and painful, and those emotions compete within minutes, hours of each other. You have to acknowledge that you’re standing in the middle of a storm and you’re doing everything you can to keep your footing. I feel like the loss actually comes later. In the moment, you’re inundated with people who want to talk to you, with people who want to tell you how much you mean to them, how much your leadership meant to them, and then things become a bit more quiet. That’s, I think, where the loss piece kicks in.

But when you leave a role that demands so much of you, that requires you to be available 24/7, you suddenly realize how big the world is—how many people there are who are working on incredibly cool projects that you feel a connection with, that you feel passionate about, and you feel a fire start to burn. And so your loss is somewhat replaced with what could be, with what’s new.

What does leaving a big job look like when the stakes are so high?

When I was leading through a big transition moment for CBS News and Stations, and I was sharing my talking points for how I was going to introduce that change, I received a critique on some of my language, that “It's too emotional. It's too personal.” At that moment I thought, Wow, maybe I am showing too much humanity at this moment. Maybe I need to be a bit more stoic, a bit more reserved. That led to an imposter-syndrome thing.

But then I recognized…that’s insane. That's ridiculous. Because those talking points were emotional, they were personal, they were authentic—they were me. It was my attempt to bring light into darkness and to bring some calm to a day that I knew was going to be difficult. And the confidence to show up as a human, to show up as a compassionate leader, is more vital than ever. Especially when the only thing that separates us now, from a messaging standpoint due to AI, is our humanity.

When you look back, what makes you most proud of your tenure at CBS?

We successfully united local and network news teams to pair the trust and connection of local journalists with the unmatched quality of storytelling at CBS News. We transformed legacy brands and operations to create a 24/7 streaming news channel, and, in doing so, became number one in streaming minutes consumed in a year. We introduced data journalism, augmented and virtual reality, and beats focused on issues of importance—climate change, immigration—all to ensure we were designing CBS News and Stations for the next-generation viewer.

None of it would've been possible without the people of CBS News and Stations. And I will always be proud of what we built and of the extraordinary people and journalists and leaders that I was privileged to champion and advocate for.

There’s been a lot of discussion about CBS’s new editorial direction, including the decision to bring on Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief. What was your reaction?

I will always be cheering for CBS News and Stations. So much of my heart, of who I am, is there. I do think the future of news and information will be shaped by how institutions and independent journalists work together. Legacy newsrooms provide the scaffolding; they provide the reporting power and newsgathering sources. Independent journalists bring the scrappiness, the intimacy, the innovation, the personality. I think both are essential. What we can’t have is institutions collapse and, as a result, have newsgathering commitments—to international coverage, to local coverage, to investigative journalism—go away. So much of what we see in the opinion space is built off the reporting of institutions. So what happens when that reporting is not there?

So for me, independent journalism and the ascendance of it is not about replacing legacy news organizations, but about bringing in reinforcements and creating new pathways for credible journalism to survive. And ideally, to thrive. Whenever there's movement of that scale, whenever there's a change that significant, you're going to have quite a bit of reporting and quite a bit of attention paid to it. There's a lot of projection; there's a lot of forecasting. I believe the proof is in what the work ultimately is.

Where do you think legacy news is really heading?

The speed of change is unprecedented. If you look at today's landscape and what leadership looks like within that landscape, it's a high-wire act. First you have to lead with an ambitious vision: "This is what I believe journalism and storytelling will be in the next decade." But that's all while staying true to the mission of the place, the thing that makes people proud to come to work every day. In the case of CBS News, it was the commitment to fact-based, objective journalism, and the calling to public service. So as a leader, you are developing a vision that's future-forward, but you're grounding it in the purpose of the place.

Lesley Stahl said to me once that it's a privilege in this life to test your mettle. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Leadership gives you that privilege.

Is there something lighting you up in this new chapter of your career?

The opportunity to help create the future state of a business, of an industry, of work that I believe is so vital. I do believe that our democracy does not exist without freedom of the press. And so, I’m advising companies and brands on commercial, culture, commerce, and media growth opportunities including at Beehiiv, a newsletter platform empowering independent journalists and creators to succeed.

I’ve also been doing quite a bit of public speaking, and my favorite part of that work is the people I meet across this country who care so deeply about local news, about freedom of the press, about the state of institutions like CBS News, like ABC News and NBC News. People care about journalism. That’s so rejuvenating.

This story appears in Marie Claire's 2026 Craftsmanship Issue.