Newly formed media corporation Paramount Skydance announced its acquisition of the digital news site the Free Press in a $150 million deal, naming Bari Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief.
Weiss co-founded the Free Press in 2021 with her wife, Nellie Bowles, and her sister, Suzy Weiss. The publication has around 1.5 million subscribers on Substack, with more than 170,000 of them paid, according to Paramount Skydance.
“This move is part of Paramount’s bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects — directly and passionately — to audiences around the world,” Skydance CEO David Ellison said in a statement.
“Bari will report directly to me,” Ellison said, “leading the work of The Free Press and collaborating with our CBS News team in the pursuit of making it the most trusted name in news.”
Ellison is the son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is allied with President Donald Trump.
The $150 million purchase is a mix of cash and Paramount stock, according to a New York Times report. Weiss has never run a TV network but will now oversee hundreds of reporters, anchors, and producers.
Weiss co-founded the Free Press after quitting the opinion section of the New York Times in 2020. She has described legacy media outlets as untrustworthy and has described her publication as a place for people who “prefer to think for themselves.”
Weiss said her new role at CBS News would allow her to work on Sunday news programs, including 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning, which are “shaping how millions of Americans read, listen, watch, and, most importantly, understand the news.”
“It 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 added.
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CBS News has drawn the ire of Trump since his 2024 presidential campaign. He filed a lawsuit last year against Paramount, accusing 60 Minutes of deceptively editing an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. Trump declined to appear on the program last year.
CBS denied the claim, but Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit for $16 million. The settlement came as Skydance and Paramount were seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission for an $8 billion merger.
