Paramount Buys The Free Press, Names Weiss CBS News Chief

Paramount Skydance Corp. acquired the online news site the Free Press and named founder Bari Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News, a move likely to stir controversy inside and outside of the venerable news organization. Weiss, 41, will report to Paramount Chief Executive Officer David Ellison and oversee the editorial direction of a news division whose programs include the prestigious 60 Minutes and CBS News Sunday Morning. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but other outlets have reported the acquisition values the Free Press at about $150 million. With the appointment of Weiss, Ellison is tapping a veteran editorial writer to oversee the home of journalism legends such as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, raising questions about what impact she’ll have on CBS News’ coverage.

Weiss has been critical of many mainstream media outlets, which she has accused of liberal bias. She’s been an advocate for free speech and opposed “cancel culture,” writing in a 2021 piece that America was in the “grip of an epidemic of self-silencing.” Her views have made her popular with conservatives. Katie Fallow, Deputy Litigation Director for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, joins Bloomberg Businessweek Daily to discuss. She speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec.

She described herself as “a consistently liberal Jewish lesbian from Pittsburgh” in a Fox News interview in February and said she didn’t initially support President Donald Trump, but now approves of some of his policies.

Weiss and the Free Press have been staunch supporters of Israel. Since Ellison’s takeover of Paramount in August, the company has put out a statement supportive of Israeli filmmakers, when thousands of others in Hollywood called for a boycott over the fighting in Gaza. Paramount’s streaming service is releasing a miniseries on Tuesday dramatizing the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Weiss will continue to lead the Free Press, while partnering with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski.

“We believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home,” Ellison said.

A Gallup poll, published earlier this month, found that Americans’ confidence in the media has fallen to a new low, with just 28% expressing a great deal of trust that it reports fairly and accurately.

Weiss previously worked on the opinion teams at the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. She left the latter in July 2020, criticizing management for not defending her against alleged bullying by colleagues upset with her sometimes conservative views.

Following her departure from the Times, Weiss started a newsletter in 2021 that eventually became the Free Press. It now publishes multiple newsletters on topics ranging from politics to culture, self-improvement to gender-related issues.

The Free Press has become one of the largest and fastest growing digital media outlets today, Paramount said, with revenue rising 82% over the past 12 months and subscribers increasing by 86% to 1.5 million. Some 170,000 subscribers pay for access, according to the company.

“Our subscribers demonstrated that there’s a market for honest journalism,” Weiss said in a post on X. “And they’ve given us a mandate to pursue that mission from an even bigger platform.”

Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News host, cheered Weiss’ appointment in a post on X, saying she “deserves every bit of this success.” English journalist Piers Morgan and Fox News host Guy Benson, also celebrated her appointment on social media.

Weiss told employees at CBS News that she wants “to hear from you about what’s working, what isn’t, and your thoughts on how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world. I’ll approach it the way any reporter would — with an open mind, a fresh notebook, and an urgent deadline.”

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