CBS News and CBS Digital Media will be turning CBSNews.com into a multiplatform digital news network that will create a 24-hour on-demand news service.

CBS News President Andrew Heyward and CBS Digital Media President Larry Kramer made the announcement Tuesday.

They said the new strategy, labeled a “cable bypass strategy,” not only will redefine CBS News but also will catapult CBS News, long seen as hindered by not having a 24-hour cable news channel or partner, to the front of the news-on-demand race by virtue of not being bound to a linear cable news format.

The site will be ad-supported and content will remain free.

The revamped CBSNews.com homepage, which is less rigidly formatted and makes use of some newspaper layout techniques that reflect the changing news, debuted quietly Monday night.

Among the content scheduled to be added to the site over the next few months will be a blog titled Public Eye. It will be edited by Vaughn Ververs, well known in Internet news circles as the former editor of “The Hotline,” a widely read daily online political news source. Public Eye will be charged with opening the news-gathering and decision-making process of CBS News to the public.