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The talks with Ms. Weiss, a founder of The Free Press, are the strongest sign yet that the new owner of CBS News intends to make major changes.
Sept. 10, 2025, 1:32 p.m. ET
Bari Weiss has spent the past few years leading The Free Press, a scrappy online media start-up that was founded as a rebuke to traditional news organizations. Now, she is closing in on a leadership role at CBS News, the country’s quintessential traditional TV news organization.
The new owner of CBS News is weighing giving Ms. Weiss the job of editor in chief or co-president of the network, as part of a broader deal to buy The Free Press, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.
The people cautioned that the terms of a deal were not final. But even the consideration of Ms. Weiss for such a prominent role at CBS News is the strongest sign yet that the network’s new owner, David Ellison, intends to make major changes at the news organization. On Monday, the company announced that Kenneth R. Weinstein, a longtime proponent of conservative policies, would take a job focused on reviewing complaints about the network’s coverage.
Mr. Ellison, whose company Skydance merged with Paramount last month in an $8 billion deal, has been in talks to acquire The Free Press for over two months. Any deal is expected to put the price tag for The Free Press at over $100 million, its valuation in 2024, the two people said.
The total price, which is still being negotiated, depends in part on how long Ms. Weiss stays at Paramount. Some expect the value to exceed $150 million, paid with some cash and the remainder in stock.
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A deal could be reached within a few weeks, said the two people, who would speak only under the condition of anonymity because the talks remain private. Puck, which publishes newsletters on finance, politics and media, earlier reported the broad outlines of the pricing.
Ms. Weiss started The Free Press in 2021 with her wife, Nellie Bowles, and her sister, Suzy Weiss, after resigning from The New York Times, where she worked as an editor for the opinion section and occasionally wrote essays. Ms. Bowles also previously worked at The Times.
They positioned the new company, which started as a newsletter, as an unflinching alternative to traditional media organizations. The Free Press has garnered attention for its reporting and commentary, some that is critical of news organizations and individual journalists, including an article by the former NPR senior editor Uri Berliner that accused the radio network of having a liberal bias. In her columns for The Free Press, Ms. Weiss has opposed diversity and inclusion programs, reported and commented on what she called Israel’s “war of defense” in Gaza and disclosed voting for Joseph R. Biden Jr. for president in 2020.
In many ways, The Free Press and CBS News are very different organizations.
CBS News, the home of Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, epitomizes traditional media, while The Free Press is a digital publisher. And CBS News is a sprawling corporate division with thousands of employees scattered around the globe, while The Free Press is much smaller. The Free Press has more than 50 employees and offices on both coasts. The site now has roughly 1.5 million free and paid subscribers. It also publishes podcasts and videos, and operates an events business. (Paramount has discussed supporting Ms. Weiss with leaders who have expertise in television, one of the people said.)
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So far, Mr. Ellison has mostly spoken in broad terms publicly about his plans for CBS News, saying he wants the division to be “fact-based and truth-based” during a press briefing in August. “We believe in basically being in the trust business,” Mr. Ellison said. “We believe in being in the truth business.” When the company this week announced the hiring of Mr. Weinstein, whom President Trump nominated as ambassador to Japan in his first term, it said he would “serve as an independent, internal advocate for journalistic integrity and transparency.”
Mr. Ellison is taking control over Paramount at a time of intense government scrutiny of the media industry. Mr. Trump and regulators have criticized news organizations for what they say is a liberal bias, and have begun investigations into media companies over D.E.I. and sponsorship practices.
In July, as Skydance waited for regulators to sign off on its deal to merge with Paramount, the company agreed to pay Mr. Trump $16 million to settle a suit he had filed over the editing of a segment of “60 Minutes,” the crown jewel of the network’s news division.
The settlement was widely considered an extraordinary concession to a sitting president by a major media organization. He had accused the show of purposely editing an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris to benefit her campaign. Many lawyers had dismissed Mr. Trump’s lawsuit as baseless and believed that CBS would have ultimately prevailed in court. Shari Redstone, the company’s controlling shareholder, said that it was in the company’s best interest to settle.
The scrutiny over CBS has persisted. Last Wednesday, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, posted on X that “it is time for a change” at the network after Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, accused “Face the Nation,” the network’s longtime Sunday politics show, of deceptively editing an interview with her. Two days later, the company said that the show would now air only interviews that are conducted live, or are prerecorded with no cuts or edits.
Lauren Hirsch is a Times reporter who covers deals and dealmakers in Wall Street and Washington.
Benjamin Mullin reports for The Times on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact him securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or at [email protected].
