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This will be a really interesting case study to watch. Legacy media’s been losing viewers for years to cable news, podcasts, and social media but it still has influence. It’s also leaned left for a long time. If Weiss doesn’t just swing it the other way but actually brings in a mix of voices, I’m curious how much demand there really is for that. Do people actually want balance, or do most prefer to stay in their echo chambers?
Can Bari Weiss reinvent CBS News?
That is what Paramount PSKY -0.31%decrease; red down pointing triangle Chief Executive David Ellison is betting on with a $150 million deal to acquire the Free Press, the popular news and opinion site Weiss founded in 2021 as a check on what she saw as the media’s “woke” orthodoxy.
He is installing the outspoken journalist as editor in chief of CBS News and empowering her to set the storied news organization’s editorial vision.
“The combination of the Free Press and CBS News will create a news organization that ultimately becomes one of the most trusted destinations for news in this country,” Ellison said in an interview. “We want CBS to speak to that 70% of the audience that would really define themselves at center-left to center-right.”
CBS News plans to launch a debate-style program that Weiss will oversee that is similar to debates the Free Press streams on topics ranging from immigration to the ethics of gene-editing embryos. Weiss will also continue as CEO and editor of the Free Press.
In an interview, Weiss said she and Ellison are aligned in their desire for “news that reflects reality” and journalism that “doesn’t seek to demonize, but seeks to understand.”
Terms of the acquisition, announced Monday, weren’t disclosed. It includes a mix of cash and Paramount stock, according to a person familiar with the agreement.
For Weiss, 41, the role of change agent at CBS News marks a return to legacy media with which she once declared she was done. Weiss publicly resigned from her role as an opinion columnist and editor at the New York Times five years ago with a blistering kiss-off.
“The paper of record is, more and more, the record of those living in a distant galaxy, one whose concerns are profoundly removed from the lives of most people,” Weiss wrote. Soon after starting the Free Press, Weiss wrote that after blowing up her career at the New York Times, “I knew I was done with the legacy media—and it was certainly done with me.”
She founded the Free Press with her wife, Nellie Bowles, who pens the popular “TGIF” column, a humorous take on the week’s news, as well as sister Suzy Weiss, who is a columnist.
The Free Press made a name for itself with a mix of news and opinion, often with a contrarian point of view on politics and culture. It is known for railing against so-called woke orthodoxy and has been a strong defender of Israel in its war against Hamas. The outlet has amassed 1.5 million subscribers, more than 175,000 of which pay for the content.
Ellison said he was enamored with the Free Press before the merger of his Skydance production company and Paramount Global closed in August. He initially contacted Weiss early this year, and the two began having discussions that heated up at the Allen & Co. annual conference of business leaders in Sun Valley, Idaho, in July.
As editor in chief of CBS News, Weiss said she plans to play a hands-on role in coverage.
“It’s questions about priorities, discernment, judgment and understanding of what is most important to the audience,” Weiss said. The news business, she said, is simple: “It’s tell me something I don’t know and help me make sense of a strange, upside-down and inverted world.”
Weiss will be paired with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, a relative newcomer to the company, having joined in February. Weiss and Cibrowski have had several meetings leading up to the deal.
The announcement of Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press describes Weiss and Cibrowski as partners, but the pecking order is clear—Weiss reports to Ellison. Cibrowski reports to George Cheeks, chair of TV media.
Cibrowski joined CBS from Disney’s ABC, where he spent 16 years as a news producer. He praised Weiss’s smarts and said bringing her in is a commitment to the reinvention CBS needs to reach new audiences.
“The status quo just doesn’t work,” he said of broadcast news. He said Weiss reporting to Ellison “shows how important news is to the company, and we’re going to take full advantage of it.”
Weiss said she was getting an education on TV from Cibrowski. She is coming to CBS News at a trepidatious time.
Broadcast news has lost relevance for some in the era of opinion-oriented cable news, social media and podcasts. Some see broadcast network newscasts as out of touch with much of the country politically or culturally.
For the 2024-25 season, ABC’s “World News Tonight,” NBC’s “Nightly News” and CBS’s “Evening News” averaged about 17.8 million nightly viewers combined, according to Nielsen. That is about half the audience they commanded a quarter of a century ago.
In cable, Fox News has grown its audience across timeslots while other networks have struggled with viewership declines. Fox News parent Fox Corp. and The Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.
CBS News has been hit by executive turnover this year, stemming in part from the decision by its previous owner, Shari Redstone, to settle a lawsuit with President Trump over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Soon after, the Federal Communications Commission approved the sale to Skydance.
Two top executives—CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens—departed. Owens cited editorial interference from management, while McMahon had been unwilling to issue an apology to Trump as part of any potential settlement of the lawsuit.
The settlement and Ellison’s decision to install an ombudsman at CBS News as part of the FCC’s merger approval drew criticism internally and from some who say Paramount is kowtowing to a president who regularly accuses the media of unfair coverage. Kenneth R. Weinstein, the ombudsman CBS named, is a conservative who served in Trump’s first term.
CBS also said Stephen Colbert’s late night show would be canceled at the end of its current season, citing economic reasons. Critics, including the Writers Guild of America, accused Paramount of ousting Colbert, a persistent critic of the president, “to curry favor with the Trump Administration.”
Some media observers see the Free Press deal as further evidence that Ellison is trying to score points with the White House. His father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is an ally of the president.
“These appear to be editorial decisions tied to business deals before the government under Donald Trump,” said Jane Hall, associate professor at American University’s School of Communication. Paramount said it has been consistent that its goal is to not politicize the news and that it is investing in its goal of reaching the majority of Americans who define themselves as moderate.
The Free Press, which has taken heat from the left, has also been critical of Trump’s attacks on the media.
“We never pull punches, no matter who is in power,” Weiss said.
In building the Free Press, Weiss said she has been guided by the idea that there is a crisis of trustworthiness in American institutions that the news outlet had to overcome. “And now we want to take that ethos to tens of millions of people,” she said.
Weiss said she has thick skin and believes there are a lot of people at CBS “who want to do what I want to do, and that’s win.” Her goal is “building CBS into a brand that is synonymous with trust and integrity.” Do that, and the ratings will follow, she said.
Cibrowski said, “Let’s get Bari into the broadcast center and hear her editorial vision and strategy and get started on day one and build from there.”
Allen & Co. advised on the deal with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
This the latest major move Ellison has made since taking over Paramount just over two months ago.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Paramount is preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, home of a storied movie and television studio, CNN and HBO. Ellison declined to comment on a possible offer for Warner.
Paramount in August landed a $7.7 billion rights agreement for Ultimate Fighting Championship matches.
Paramount Buys Bari Weiss’s the Free Press for $150 Million
Weiss to take control of CBS News’s editorial vision, aiming for ‘news that reflects reality’
Can Bari Weiss reinvent CBS News?
That is what Paramount PSKY -0.31%decrease; red down pointing triangle Chief Executive David Ellison is betting on with a $150 million deal to acquire the Free Press, the popular news and opinion site Weiss founded in 2021 as a check on what she saw as the media’s “woke” orthodoxy.
He is installing the outspoken journalist as editor in chief of CBS News and empowering her to set the storied news organization’s editorial vision.
“The combination of the Free Press and CBS News will create a news organization that ultimately becomes one of the most trusted destinations for news in this country,” Ellison said in an interview. “We want CBS to speak to that 70% of the audience that would really define themselves at center-left to center-right.”
CBS News plans to launch a debate-style program that Weiss will oversee that is similar to debates the Free Press streams on topics ranging from immigration to the ethics of gene-editing embryos. Weiss will also continue as CEO and editor of the Free Press.
In an interview, Weiss said she and Ellison are aligned in their desire for “news that reflects reality” and journalism that “doesn’t seek to demonize, but seeks to understand.”
Terms of the acquisition, announced Monday, weren’t disclosed. It includes a mix of cash and Paramount stock, according to a person familiar with the agreement.
For Weiss, 41, the role of change agent at CBS News marks a return to legacy media with which she once declared she was done. Weiss publicly resigned from her role as an opinion columnist and editor at the New York Times five years ago with a blistering kiss-off.
“The paper of record is, more and more, the record of those living in a distant galaxy, one whose concerns are profoundly removed from the lives of most people,” Weiss wrote. Soon after starting the Free Press, Weiss wrote that after blowing up her career at the New York Times, “I knew I was done with the legacy media—and it was certainly done with me.”
She founded the Free Press with her wife, Nellie Bowles, who pens the popular “TGIF” column, a humorous take on the week’s news, as well as sister Suzy Weiss, who is a columnist.
The Free Press made a name for itself with a mix of news and opinion, often with a contrarian point of view on politics and culture. It is known for railing against so-called woke orthodoxy and has been a strong defender of Israel in its war against Hamas. The outlet has amassed 1.5 million subscribers, more than 175,000 of which pay for the content.
Ellison said he was enamored with the Free Press before the merger of his Skydance production company and Paramount Global closed in August. He initially contacted Weiss early this year, and the two began having discussions that heated up at the Allen & Co. annual conference of business leaders in Sun Valley, Idaho, in July.
As editor in chief of CBS News, Weiss said she plans to play a hands-on role in coverage.
“It’s questions about priorities, discernment, judgment and understanding of what is most important to the audience,” Weiss said. The news business, she said, is simple: “It’s tell me something I don’t know and help me make sense of a strange, upside-down and inverted world.”
Weiss will be paired with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, a relative newcomer to the company, having joined in February. Weiss and Cibrowski have had several meetings leading up to the deal.
The announcement of Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press describes Weiss and Cibrowski as partners, but the pecking order is clear—Weiss reports to Ellison. Cibrowski reports to George Cheeks, chair of TV media.
Cibrowski joined CBS from Disney’s ABC, where he spent 16 years as a news producer. He praised Weiss’s smarts and said bringing her in is a commitment to the reinvention CBS needs to reach new audiences.
“The status quo just doesn’t work,” he said of broadcast news. He said Weiss reporting to Ellison “shows how important news is to the company, and we’re going to take full advantage of it.”
Weiss said she was getting an education on TV from Cibrowski. She is coming to CBS News at a trepidatious time.
Broadcast news has lost relevance for some in the era of opinion-oriented cable news, social media and podcasts. Some see broadcast network newscasts as out of touch with much of the country politically or culturally.
For the 2024-25 season, ABC’s “World News Tonight,” NBC’s “Nightly News” and CBS’s “Evening News” averaged about 17.8 million nightly viewers combined, according to Nielsen. That is about half the audience they commanded a quarter of a century ago.
In cable, Fox News has grown its audience across timeslots while other networks have struggled with viewership declines. Fox News parent Fox Corp. and The Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.
CBS News has been hit by executive turnover this year, stemming in part from the decision by its previous owner, Shari Redstone, to settle a lawsuit with President Trump over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Soon after, the Federal Communications Commission approved the sale to Skydance.
Two top executives—CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens—departed. Owens cited editorial interference from management, while McMahon had been unwilling to issue an apology to Trump as part of any potential settlement of the lawsuit.
The settlement and Ellison’s decision to install an ombudsman at CBS News as part of the FCC’s merger approval drew criticism internally and from some who say Paramount is kowtowing to a president who regularly accuses the media of unfair coverage. Kenneth R. Weinstein, the ombudsman CBS named, is a conservative who served in Trump’s first term.
CBS also said Stephen Colbert’s late night show would be canceled at the end of its current season, citing economic reasons. Critics, including the Writers Guild of America, accused Paramount of ousting Colbert, a persistent critic of the president, “to curry favor with the Trump Administration.”
Some media observers see the Free Press deal as further evidence that Ellison is trying to score points with the White House. His father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is an ally of the president.
“These appear to be editorial decisions tied to business deals before the government under Donald Trump,” said Jane Hall, associate professor at American University’s School of Communication. Paramount said it has been consistent that its goal is to not politicize the news and that it is investing in its goal of reaching the majority of Americans who define themselves as moderate.
The Free Press, which has taken heat from the left, has also been critical of Trump’s attacks on the media.
“We never pull punches, no matter who is in power,” Weiss said.
In building the Free Press, Weiss said she has been guided by the idea that there is a crisis of trustworthiness in American institutions that the news outlet had to overcome. “And now we want to take that ethos to tens of millions of people,” she said.
Weiss said she has thick skin and believes there are a lot of people at CBS “who want to do what I want to do, and that’s win.” Her goal is “building CBS into a brand that is synonymous with trust and integrity.” Do that, and the ratings will follow, she said.
Cibrowski said, “Let’s get Bari into the broadcast center and hear her editorial vision and strategy and get started on day one and build from there.”
Allen & Co. advised on the deal with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
This the latest major move Ellison has made since taking over Paramount just over two months ago.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Paramount is preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, home of a storied movie and television studio, CNN and HBO. Ellison declined to comment on a possible offer for Warner.
Paramount in August landed a $7.7 billion rights agreement for Ultimate Fighting Championship matches.