The CBS Evening News remains in third place, well behind both NBC and ABC.  So you could argue it has less to lose in being adventurous.  Maybe that’s part of the explanation for a smart move by the news division.  But CBS news chief Sean McManus gets something that so many in traditional media still don’t.  He said it himself in the New York Times article referenced elsewhere on this site:

What we’ve realized is that, as opposed to just keeping all your content on your own Web site in a proprietary manner, we are better off pushing our own news content to as many sources as we can…

Hallelujah!  So CBS News will simulcast newscasts on a third party site, Ustream, and it will sell the ads in the Ustream feed.  Monetizing content distributed on multiple platforms is the name of the game for “old media.”  As the Times piece notes, this approach entails some risk for CBS in its relationship with affiliates.  They won’t likely be happy about diluting their once exclusive franchise even more.  So be it.  CBS doesn’t have a choice.