\n<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Known for her attacks on liberal institutions and \u201ccancel culture\u201d, Weiss <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n On Monday, Weiss wrote in the Free Press: \u201cAs of today, I am editor-in-chief of CBS News, working with new colleagues on the programs that have impacted American culture for generations \u2013 shows like 60 Minutes and Sunday Morning <\/em>\u2013 and shaping how millions of Americans read, listen, watch, and, most importantly, understand the news in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n The purchase comes in light of major changes to 97-year-old CBS News after a merger between Paramount Global, the channel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n As of April, the Free Press \u2013 which is published on Substack \u2013 claimed to have 1.25 million overall subscribers, including nearly 155,000 who pay, likely generating annual revenues north of $15m.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe publish investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is \u2013 with the quality once expected from the legacy press, but the fearlessness of the new,\u201d reads the description of the publication on its website.<\/p>\n The publication is known for criticizing reactions from the left and right and has been a home for staunch support of Israel.<\/p>\n Weiss\u2019s politics are hard to categorize. In past interviews, she has described herself as a \u201cradical centrist\u201d, \u201cpolitically independent\u201d and a \u201cclassical liberal\u201d.<\/p>\n But her appointment is seen by some CBS News journalists as proof that the network\u2019s new owners are taking it in a more conservative \u2013 or at least a more opinionated \u2013 direction, despite claims by Ellison that he has no desire to \u201cpoliticize\u201d the vaunted network.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The announcement follows the network\u2019s 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 \u2013 and its pro-Trump chair, Brendan Carr \u2013 to grant approval of Paramount\u2019s merger with Skydance Media.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s flagship morning and evening news shows.<\/p>\n \u201cHow many people have led us in just the last five years?\u201d one CBS News employee asked. \u201cThrowing America\u2019s best big tech apologist at the problem isn\u2019t going to fix the ratings.\u201d<\/p>\n Catherine Herridge, a former senior investigative correspondent at CBS News, is more optimistic about Weiss\u2019s chances. \u201cBari has a proven track record and the experience to take CBS News into the future,\u201d she said. \u201cShe already has the support of David Ellison, which will make all the difference.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no question Bari will have to win over the CBS rank and file, which I believe she is more than capable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI think how she does at CBS depends on how they define the role and what areas she chooses to focus on,\u201d said one veteran television executive, who suggested that the network\u2019s flagship Sunday shows \u2013 CBS News Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes \u2013 should largely be left alone. \u201cIf they\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Now, nearly a year later, it will be Weiss who will be more or less in charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[5310,923,4699,15759,533,3501,150,4849,4316,2127,15758],"class_list":{"0":"post-26224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bari","9":"tag-buys","10":"tag-cbs","11":"tag-editorinchief","12":"tag-free","13":"tag-named","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-paramount","16":"tag-press","17":"tag-startup","18":"tag-weiss"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}