Paramount Buys The Free Press, Installs Bari Weiss as CBS News Editor-in-Chief in Strategy Shift

Paramount Skydance Corp. on Monday announced a strategic move to bolster its news division and expand its digital footprint, acquiring the news and commentary website The Free Press and appointing its founder, Bari Weiss, as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News. The transaction is intended to inject new editorial vision into the storied broadcast news organization.

The acquisition and new appointment are part of what David Ellison, who took over as Paramount's corporate leader this summer when his company, Skydance, purchased Paramount, called "Paramount's bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects—directly and passionately—to audiences around the world". Ellison said he is confident that Weiss's "entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News". Weiss will remain CEO and editor-in-chief of The Free Press , which will continue to operate independently and is expected to grow "even faster within Paramount". Paramount did not disclose the purchase price. The Free Press, launched by Weiss in 2021 after she left the New York Times, says it now has about 1.5 million subscribers.

New Role for CBS News

CBS News is establishing the editor-in-chief position for the first time. Weiss will report to Ellison and work alongside CBS News president Tom Cibrowski. Cibrowski reports to Paramount executive George Cheeks. Ellison said Weiss will "shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news," according to the Associated Press.

Paramount said the move is driven by a belief that the country "longs for news that is balanced and fact-based," a sentiment echoed by Weiss and Ellison in separate staff memos. Weiss described the premise of her publication as marrying "the quality of the old world to the freedom of the new," and seeking "the truth and tell[ing] it plainly". She wrote that her goal for CBS News is to make it "the most trusted news organization in America and the world."

The transaction brings a figure with a reputation for "resisting orthodoxy and fighting 'woke' culture" into a senior leadership position at a network historically "viewed by many conservatives as the personification of a liberal media establishment," according to the Associated Press. The AP also noted that Weiss has an opinion journalism background and "little background in broadcast journalism."

Reshaping the News Strategy

In her letter to subscribers, Weiss addressed the apparent paradox of joining a large, established institution after starting The Free Press as an independent venture, saying the opportunity gives The Free Press a chance "to help reshape a storied media organization—to help guide CBS News into a future that honors those great values that underpin The Free Press and the best of American journalism." She outlined a mission to reach an "actual mainstream" of "smart, politically mixed, pragmatic Americans" who, she believes, are being "ill-served" by the extremes of an "America-loathing far left" and a "history-erasing far right".

Paramount’s investment is intended to allow The Free Press to grow faster and invest heavily in its community. For CBS News, Weiss said the move means "a redoubled commitment to great journalism" and bringing the historic newsroom into "2025 and beyond."

AP notes that broadcast networks face shrinking influence amid digital competition and skew older demographically. According to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year, 56% of Democrats and Democratic-leaners trust CBS News, compared with 23% of Republicans and Republican-leaners.