NEW YORK — Paramount is reportedly preparing to buy Bari Weiss’s media startup The Free Press for as much as $200 million — and install Weiss in a senior editorial role at CBS News, marking a dramatic shake-up at one of America’s most storied news divisions.
According to reporting from Puck, Paramount is in advanced negotiations to fold The Free Press into its operations, with Weiss, a former New York Times opinion editor and outspoken critic of progressive orthodoxy, slated for a leadership post at CBS. The deal would give Paramount control of Weiss’s subscriber-driven venture, which has grown into a buzzy platform for essays, interviews, and investigations outside mainstream journalism.
Paramount declined to comment on the reports, but insiders told Puck that the purchase price is pegged between $100 million and $200 million. The timing follows last month’s blockbuster $8 billion Skydance–Paramount merger, which ended decades of Redstone family dominance and placed Paramount under CEO David Ellison.
As part of the merger, Ellison agreed to sweeping changes at CBS News to appease regulators, including eliminating DEI programs, installing an ombudsman to monitor bias, and pledging to prioritize “viewpoint diversity.” Those concessions have rattled the newsroom, where staffers privately derided the ombudsman role as a “hall monitor” and warned about threats to editorial independence.
The possible arrival of Weiss — who quit the Times in 2020 after blasting its “illiberal environment” — has only heightened tensions. Critics say her sharp critiques of progressive politics could pull CBS further to the right, while allies argue she brings credibility to Ellison’s promise of broader perspective.
Weiss has largely avoided traditional media since leaving the Times, but she has built The Free Press into one of the most talked-about independent outlets of the past three years. Her podcast Honestly has featured big-name guests including Sen. Ted Cruz, and the site has positioned itself as a home for voices dissatisfied with both mainstream liberalism and right-wing partisanship.
For CBS News, the move comes at a fragile moment. The network’s ratings have been sliding, and its journalists remain wary after the merger’s political overtones. The FCC only approved the Skydance takeover after grilling Ellison’s team over CBS coverage and conditioning approval on bias-monitoring safeguards.
Adding to the drama, Paramount’s dealmaking is unfolding against a backdrop of political pressure. The company recently settled a lawsuit brought by President Trump against CBS over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that he claimed was deceptively edited.
If the Weiss deal goes through, it would mark her most prominent mainstream role since her Times resignation — and could transform CBS News at a moment when its future identity is already in flux.
Paramount has not issued an official comment, and Weiss herself has remained publicly silent. But within CBS, the message is clear: change is coming fast, and not everyone in the newsroom is ready for it.
