The Newsgirls Are Targeting Gen-Zers

Wren Woodson and Mabel Kabani, the 30-year-old former 60 Minutes staffers, have built Newsgirls into a Gen Z-focused news outlet with nearly half a million followers across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok by blending rigorous reporting with the style of independent content creators.⁠

After bonding as the youngest hires at CBS’s 60 Minutes—each woman’s first job out of college—they launched the venture in 2024 to reach peers who had largely abandoned traditional outlets. “We think of ourselves as journalists, but creators too, doing credible investigative work,” Woodson said. Kabani added that they deliberately emphasize their journalism credentials because many “news creators” do not do equivalent reporting work.⁠

As first reported by Vanity Fair, their content aims for the intimacy of a FaceTime call with a well-informed friend: conversational delivery, attention-grabbing titles such as “Trump Is Replacing the WH Press Room With a Swimming Pool?!” and “Hegseth’s Wife Spies on His Drinking & Women,” and packaging designed to stop mid-scroll. The underlying approach draws on their 60 Minutes experience, with an emphasis on corruption and substantive issues. Watching a Newsgirls video, according to a recent profile, feels like getting Vice-level reporting wrapped in the accessibility of a popular podcast.⁠

Growth accelerated with coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The pair had reported on the story at CBS—Kabani worked on the investigation that included autopsy photos—and produced roughly three videos a day contextualizing the massive document release. Instagram followers jumped from about 30,000 to 200,000 in six weeks. They have also gone into the field for pieces on events such as the White House UFC fight, Staten Island interviews ahead of New York’s mayoral race, and the Charlie Kirk statue unveiling.⁠

Last week they launched Newsgirls Investigate, a YouTube and Substack series for deeper reporting. The first installment featured previously unreported details on Pete Hegseth’s Department of Defense drawn from interviews with former senior officials.⁠

The founders initially pitched the concept inside CBS, including to then-60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens. He told them the idea needed a more visionary home and that CBS was not it; they later described themselves as glad they left. Both have called the subsequent changes at CBS News “heartbreaking,” noting the departure of longtime correspondents and the fragility of institutional journalism.⁠

Woodson grew up in rural Wisconsin, pivoted to journalism at Northwestern University after the 2016 election, primarily worked with Lesley Stahl at 60 Minutes, and won an Emmy for her final story there (on a hostage taken from Israel to Gaza). Kabani, whose parents are from Pakistan, won a California press award at 16 for exposing a neighborhood brothel in her Beverly Hills High School paper, studied journalism (including at George Washington University), and interned on Capitol Hill for the Democratic caucus. Both have described early cold outreach—including emails that began “Hi, Bill” to former President Clinton—as naive but illustrative of their startup mindset.⁠

They have resisted suggestions to soften the “Newsgirls” name or aesthetic for greater seriousness, arguing that the packaging helps the journalism reach people who might otherwise scroll past. Their audience is roughly evenly split by gender. Looking ahead, they hope Newsgirls can expand into a broader network of like-minded creators, while focusing in the near term on the midterms and the 2028 election cycle.⁠