UPDATED: Paramount made official its long anticipated purchase of The Free Press, the right-of-center commentary site, with its founder, Bari Weiss, set to take on the role of editor in chief at CBS News.
Per the announcement, Weiss “will shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms, and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news.” Weiss will report to David Ellison, the chairman and CEO of Paramount, and she will partner with Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News, who reports to George Cheeks, Paramount’s chair of TV Media.
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The Free Press, meanwhile, will maintain its own independent brand and operations, and Weiss will continue to lead the operation in addition to her CBS News duties. A sale price was not disclosed, but the Wall Street Journal reported it as $150 million.
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The move is unusual, even for new owners Skydance. Ellison told reporters in August that “I don’t want to politicize our company in any way, shape or form. We want to speak to the broadest audience possible.” Weiss is a former opinion writer from the New York Times and, while The Free Press provides original reporting, it’s known for its commentary, analysis, hot takes and point of view.
Ellison, though, signaled that the addition of Weiss and The Free Press was an effort to reach a wider audience, presumably of viewers on the right who have migrated to Fox News, podcasts and other outlets. Weiss, in a note to Free Press subscribers, said that her publication had “uncovered an America hiding in plain sight.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Bari and The Free Press to Paramount and CBS News,” Ellison said. “Bari is a proven champion of independent, principled journalism, and I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News. 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.”
“This is an important initiative for our company and Bari will report directly to me – 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 said. “We believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home.”
In a statement, Weiss said, “This is a great moment for The Free Press. This partnership allows our ethos of fearless, independent journalism to reach an enormous, diverse, and influential audience. We honor the extraordinary legacy of CBS News by committing ourselves to a singular mission: building the most trusted news organization of the 21st Century.”
Paramount said that The Free Press has 1.5 million subscribers, more than 170,000 paid. Its revenues have grown by 82% over the last 12 months.
Inside CBS News, there has been anxiety over the potential changes coming to the network, albeit Weiss’ deal has been rumored for months. Some of the concerns are less about her background in opinion and commentary and more of her lack of experience in broadcast network TV, where CBS News remains one of the largest global news organizations. In the announcement, Paramount emphasized Cibrowski’s “decades of journalistic, operational and broadcast experience.” Overall, more disconcerting for staffers at the network are Paramount’s plans for significant layoffs later this year.
Recent efforts by corporate owners to put their own stamp on the editorial direction of major legacy news organizations have been tumultuous, risking losing their core audience.
According to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year, regular users of CBS News placed themselves just left of center, clustered with other outlets like ABC News and Univision. Around 39% of Americans said they trusted CBS News as a source of news, with 23% of Americans saying they distrusted it.
The decision by Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, to prohibit the publication from endorsing a presidential candidate last year, followed by a new mandate for its opinion pages, has led to a talent brain drain. At the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong also blocked the paper’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, leading to resignations. Soon-Shiong recently announced a plan to take the publication public.
Even less heavy handed efforts have been met with opposition. When Chris Licht, then the CEO of CNN, programmed a town hall with Donald Trump in 2023, some staffers objected to what they saw as a forum for the then-former president to spread misinformation, in a forum of his cheering supporters.
Weiss founded The Free Press in 2021, after her resignation from the New York Times. She had become well known for her columns opposing so-called wokeness on the left, as well as for her defense of Israel. That has especially been the case as Israel wages war against Hamas.
That had been a particular flashpoint within CBS News under Paramount’s previous owner, Sheri Redstone. Last year, CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil drew criticism for dominating and pressing author Ta-Nehisi Coates on the section of his book, The Message, that criticizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Dokoupil, who is Jewish, challenged Coates on whether he believed the state of Israel had a right to exist. Wendy McMahon, then president of CBS News and Stations, and Adrienne Roark, the president of editorial and newsgathering, told employees that Dokoupil’s questioning did not meet the news division’s “editorial standards.”
But Redstone called it a “mistake” for CBS News to publicly rebuke Dokoupil. McMahon and Roark have since left the network.
Meanwhile, 60 Minutes was at the center of Paramount’s efforts to close the Skydance deal. After Trump sued CBS News last October over the way that the show edited an interview with Kamala Harris, the network dismissed the lawsuit as without merit, as did other legal experts. But as FCC approval was sought for the Paramount-Skydance transaction, Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit for $16 million. Weeks later, the FCC gave the deal its greenlight.
As the FCC weighed approval, Skydance committed to hiring an ombudsman to take complaints over alleged bias. Last month, Paramount tapped Kenneth R. Weinstein, former president and CEO of the Hudson Institute, a right-leaning D.C. think tank, to serve in that role.
Although The Free Press did not weigh in that much in the months that the Skydance-Paramount merger was under consideration, it more recently has been critical of the Trump administration for its threats to media outlets over their coverage. That included FCC chairman Brendan Carr’s warning to ABC over Jimmy Kimmel, which led to the host’s suspension and, after a backlash, return to the air.
The Free Press editors wrote that “when a network drops high-profile talent hours after the FCC chairman makes a barely veiled threat, then it’s no longer just a business decision. It’s government coercion. Is it now Trump administration policy to punish broadcasters for comedy that doesn’t conform to its politics? That is censorship.”
60 Minutes remains the crown jewel of CBS News, drawing more viewers for its recent season premiere than any other non-football show on TV. Its morning show and its nightly newscast, CBS Evening News, remain in third place, though. The network has greatly expanded its streaming operations into CBS News 24/7, relying on a mix of national and local reporting from CBS’ owned-and-operated stations.
Bari Weiss is fantastic and this news is a breath of fresh air! She is an outspoken, common-sense centrist. Not MAGA, contrary to some comments here. It is about time we have someone heading a legacy media organization who isn’t a shill for the Democratic party, or the Republican party for that matter (less common)
Bari Weiss is a disingenuous grifter who is brought and paid for by MAGA/Right Wing. The bots trying to paint her as some kind of ” Centrist” are lying through their teeth.
Bari Weiss is not even an actual journalist, she’s an opinion writer who has carried water for Trump and right wing propaganda.
If people in the Deadline comments section are complaining, it means you’re doing something right!
Nope
Seriously? That’s the bar? 😂😂😂 deadline commenters complain about anything. Get better standards
It’s such a weird and ham-handed move. It’s evident that Ellison doesn’t really care about news (whether or not he ends up owning CNN too, I think this is true). It’s not an engine of IP or growth.
But Weis is such a troll. Even if you wanted to change the ideology of this relatively centrist news organization (of which, maybe only 1-2 franchises are healthy). Would someone who cares about journalism, or 60 minutes, do this?
So what’s striking is that Bezos and now Ellison are hiring 2nd and 3rd tier editorial talent in order to gain compliance. It’s all so underwhelming. The only thing you can say is that it’s destructive. Destroying of and co-opting of institutions.
Is “The Free Press” fact based?
“Overall, we rate The Free Press as Right-Center biased due to its consistent criticism of left-leaning views, especially on cultural and social issues. We rate them Mixed for factual reporting because, while articles are generally well-sourced, the outlet often presents one-sided opinion pieces that lack counterarguments or broader contextual balance.”
Great news, literally
Bari Weiss was a Trump loving right wing opinion editor, never an actual journalist. Only paid bots would think this is great news.
If you think Weiss loves Trump then you simply aren’t listening to her, and lack any sense of nuance. Neither the right nor the left currently feels comfortable a truly independent thinker like her. Maybe sometimes she’s a little to the right for my personal taste, but I admire this decision.
“a truly independent thinker like her”
lol
Bari Weiss is not an independent thinker, she’s a proven MAGA mouth piece who promotes MAGA talking points. For you to think that’s she’s an independent proves that you have no clue on what you are talking about.