CBS News owner Paramount will acquire the Free Press, a media startup founded by Bari Weiss, and has appointed her editor-in-chief of the storied US news network.
Weiss, 41, has no experience working in broadcast television, though she has carved out a reputation as a heterodox opinion writer and burgeoning media operator.
Known for her attacks on liberal institutions and “cancel culture”, Weiss founded the Free Press with her partner Nellie Bowles in 2021 after she left the New York Times as a columnist, claiming that she was heavily scrutinized for her conservative views and criticism of the left at the paper.
On Monday, Weiss wrote in the Free Press: “As of today, I am editor-in-chief of CBS News, working with new colleagues on the programs that have impacted American culture for generations – shows like 60 Minutes and Sunday Morning – and shaping how millions of Americans read, listen, watch, and, most importantly, understand the news in the 21st century.”
The purchase comes in light of major changes to 97-year-old CBS News after a merger between Paramount Global, the channel’s parent company, and Skydance Media, a media company founded by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, this summer. Paramount is also behind the Paramount Pictures movie studios and US cable channels including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
Ahead of the merger, Paramount agreed to pay Donald Trump $16m to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes segment that aired during the 2024 presidential election. Shortly after, CBS announced it was cancelling the Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which frequently criticizes Trump and his administration.
As editor-in-chief of CBS News, Weiss will report directly to David Ellison, now the chief executive of Paramount Skydance. Tom Cibrowski, a well-liked industry veteran, will remain president of CBS News.
As of April, the Free Press – which is published on Substack – claimed to have 1.25 million overall subscribers, including nearly 155,000 who pay, likely generating annual revenues north of $15m.
Since its founding, the Free Press has grown into a company with more than 50 employees, and offices in New York and Los Angeles, producing podcasts and newsletters that cover politics and the media.
“We publish investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is – with the quality once expected from the legacy press, but the fearlessness of the new,” reads the description of the publication on its website.
The publication is known for criticizing reactions from the left and right and has been a home for staunch support of Israel.
Weiss’s politics are hard to categorize. In past interviews, she has described herself as a “radical centrist”, “politically independent” and a “classical liberal”.
But her appointment is seen by some CBS News journalists as proof that the network’s new owners are taking it in a more conservative – or at least a more opinionated – direction, despite claims by Ellison that he has no desire to “politicize” the vaunted network.
The decision to spend a reported $150m to purchase the site, at a time when the network is readying for a massive round of layoffs, has also struck some CBS News employees as hard to swallow.
The announcement follows the network’s selection of a major Trump campaign donor, Kenneth R Weinstein, as ombudsman, an appointment that was viewed as a prerequisite for the Federal Communications Commission – and its pro-Trump chair, Brendan Carr – to grant approval of Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media.
By now, CBS News employees are used to change at the top. The network has churned through several presidents and newsroom managers over the past few years, though it has remained in third place in viewers for the network’s flagship morning and evening news shows.
“How many people have led us in just the last five years?” one CBS News employee asked. “Throwing America’s best big tech apologist at the problem isn’t going to fix the ratings.”
Catherine Herridge, a former senior investigative correspondent at CBS News, is more optimistic about Weiss’s chances. “Bari has a proven track record and the experience to take CBS News into the future,” she said. “She already has the support of David Ellison, which will make all the difference.
“There is no question Bari will have to win over the CBS rank and file, which I believe she is more than capable of doing.”
Weiss is not the first television industry newby to take on a significant role, though networks have generally hired traditional journalists, rather than commentators, as executives. Rebecca Blumenstein, who serves as the president of editorial for NBC News, came directly from the New York Times. And the journalist and historian Walter Isaacson served as chief executive of CNN in the early 2000s after a lengthy career in magazines.
“I think how she does at CBS depends on how they define the role and what areas she chooses to focus on,” said one veteran television executive, who suggested that the network’s flagship Sunday shows – CBS News Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes – should largely be left alone. “If they’re smart and if Bari is smart, she will not try to be a bull in a china shop. The other challenge for her is going to be being a manager, which is not easy anywhere, but it can be particular difficult at CBS News.”
It was the Free Press that set off a firestorm inside CBS News when it broke the news in early October that two network leaders had criticized the way that morning show host Tony Dokoupil handled an interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Those leaders, Wendy McMahon and Adrienne Roark, drew pushback from Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, and have since left the company.
Now, nearly a year later, it will be Weiss who will be more or less in charge.
