Bari Weiss announced on Monday that she is officially editor-in-chief of CBS News and her outlet, The Free Press, is joining Paramount.
"We’re a news organization, so I’ll get right to it: This morning, The Free Press is joining Paramount," Weiss wrote in an email to readers.
"This move is a testament to many things: The Free Press team; the vision of Paramount’s new leaders; the luck of starting an independent media company at the right moment; and the courage of my colleagues to leave behind old worlds to build a new one," she continued. "But, above all, it’s a testament to you, our subscribers."
Weiss, who famously quit The New York Times in 2020 after detailing bullying by her colleagues, went on to launch the "Common Sense" newsletter in 2021 before rebranding it as The Free Press and expanding it into a full-fledged media company in 2022. Weiss and The Free Press have long been rumored to be coveted by Paramount's new owner David Ellison, and the pact is now official.
"We are thrilled to welcome Bari and The Free Press to Paramount and CBS News. 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," Ellison said in a statement.
"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 added. "We believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home."
Weiss "will shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms, and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news," according to Paramount. She will partner with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski.
The purchase price for The Free Press was $150 million in cash and Paramount stock, according to reports.
Weiss noted that The Free Press aimed to "marry the quality of the old world to the freedom of the new," and that her goal is to "seek the truth and tell it plainly" while treating readers "like adults capable of making their own choices."
"So many people told us this was no longer possible. That the premise of a media company built on trust rather than partisanship was, at best, a relic from the past—and, at worst, a fantasy that never was. That the internet killed journalism. That there simply weren’t enough Americans out there in search of media driven by honesty, independence, and integrity," Weiss wrote. "You proved them wrong. You demonstrated that there’s a market for honest journalism. And you’ve given us a mandate to pursue that mission from an even bigger platform."
The Free Presswill maintain its "own independent brand and operations, and continue to do reporting, video and audio podcasts, and events for its fast-growing community of subscribers," according to Paramount.
Weiss said she would continue to lead The Free Press as CEO and editor-in-chief but has more on her plate.
"As of today, I am editor-in-chief of CBS News, working with new colleagues on the programs that have impacted American culture for generations — shows like ‘60 Minutes’ and ‘Sunday Morning’ — and shaping how millions of Americans read, listen, watch, and, most importantly, understand the news in the 21st century," Weiss wrote.
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Weiss joins CBS at a time of severe tumult in the industry and the network itself, which has weathered controversies around "60 Minutes" and the surprising cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
Weiss, who built her brand around the notion that legacy outlets suffer from liberal groupthink, is sure to shake things up. Liberals have been incensed at the idea of Weiss being elevated to such a powerful position at CBS News. She has largely been ostracized by the cultural left for The Free Press' reporting that challenges DEI, gender ideology and media narratives against Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas.
While conservatives and critics of the legacy media have largely welcomed the idea of Weiss leading a CBS overhaul, liberals and anti-Israel commentators slammed the move on social media.
Weiss, who wrote that the move means CBS has a "redoubled commitment to great journalism," conceded in her email to subscribers that they might have questions about the deal.
"Wasn’t The Free Press started precisely because the old media institutions had failed? Isn’t the whole premise of this publication that we need to build anew? Why flee The New York Times only to head back into another legacy institution?" Weiss wrote.
"In 2020, when I quit The New York Times, I left a job that, on paper, was exactly the one I had always dreamed of having. But it wasn’t The New York Times anymore. It was, by then, a fancy logo and a motto that many had abandoned in exchange for devotion to a set of narrow, partisan ideas," she continued. "I was raised to be a believer in the institutions that built America and that made sense of it—the universities, book publishers, movie studios, and newspaper companies that forged public opinion for the entirety of my grandparents and parents’ lives. But what I found in 2020 is that the most important public conversations were happening outside of those places. I wanted to be a part of that more than I wanted to cling to the prestige."
Weiss wrote that "so much has changed" over the past five years.
"As the gatekeepers of the mainstream have failed one after another, an explosion took place across the media landscape. Incredible new voices came to the fore. Personalities and influencers have overtaken hundred-year-old journalism brands in only a few years. It’s an exciting, fascinating moment. It is also a deeply uncertain one," Weiss wrote.
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She continued: "Overlooked by all these so-called interlocutors are the enormous numbers of smart, politically mixed, pragmatic Americans. The people who believe, unapologetically, in the American project. This is the actual mainstream. These people are the overwhelming majority of the country. And they are being ill-served."
Weiss said there are 1.5 million Free Press subscribers and the move to Paramount allows them to reach even more Americans.
"If you’re a CBS News reader or viewer hearing our name for the first time: I am eager to earn your trust," she wrote.
The Free Press will lift its paywall through October 12.
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Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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