Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News under Free Press-Paramount deal

By Dawn Chmielewski and Helen Coster LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has named Bari Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News, as part of a deal to acquire the online news site she founded, The Free Press. The companies did not disclose the deal value in Monday's announcement. A source familiar with the matter said it was for $150 million. In an essay announcing the deal Monday, Weiss, 41, said the deal provides "a chance to help reshape a storied media organization—to help guide CBS News into a future that honors those great values that underpin The Free Press and the best of American journalism." The announcement capped months of talks between Ellison and Weiss. The newly minted media baron first floated the idea at July's Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, a frequent staging ground for major media mergers, according to media reports. Weiss resigned as an opinion writer for the New York Times in July 2020, in a 1,500-word open letter in which she described being the subject of "constant bullying" by colleagues who disagreed with her views.  In 2022, she founded her new media company on a credo of "honesty, doggedness, and fierce independence." "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, calling Weiss "a proven champion of independent, principled journalism." In a letter to CBS News employees, Weiss said that CBS was part of her family tradition. "Whenever I hear that tick, tick, tick or that trumpet fanfare, it sends me right back to our den in Pittsburgh,"  Weiss wrote in the letter seen by Reuters. "The opportunity to build on that legacy with you — and to renew it in an era that so desperately needs it — is an extraordinary privilege." Weiss said she wanted to hear from the staff at CBS News about what's working and what's not, with the goal of making CBS News the most-trusted news organization in America. She promised to listen with "an open mind, a fresh notebook and an urgent deadline." The Free Press has earned a reputation for challenging conventional narratives. Notable articles include a first-person essay from a then-senior editor at NPR, who accused the public radio network of liberal bias that cost it listeners' trust.  Another offered a whistleblower account of the Washington University Transgender Center at the St. Louis Children's Hospital, which reported vulnerable teenagers with mental health problems rushed into life-altering treatments. Weiss will report directly to David Ellison, and help set an editorial course for CBS News. The network's evening news broadcast is in third place behind its television peers. She will work with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who joined in 2025 after spending 25 years at ABC News in a variety of leadership positions. Cibrowski will continue to report to George Cheeks, Paramount's chair of TV Media. The Free Press, which has about 1.5 million subscribers including 170,000 paying members, will remain independent, retaining its brand and operations, the companies said. The Free Press will continue to publish. Major media and tech companies are now controlled by supporters of President Donald Trump or billionaire business leaders who lined up behind him during his inauguration, donated to his inaugural fund or visited the White House with gifts. The son of longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison, David Ellison, helped secure regulatory approval for his company Skydance Media to buy Paramount, with the promise that the CBS network would reflect "a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum," according to a statement from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announcing the deal. Prior to the deal, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a 2024 lawsuit Trump filed over a "60 Minutes" interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which he claimed gave a distorted view of his rival for the White House. The FCC has said the settlement and regulatory review were unrelated. In early September, the company announced the appointment of its new ombudsman, Kenneth Weinstein, a former president and CEO of the conservative Hudson Institute.     (Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Helen Coster in New York, Aditya Soni and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Nick Zieminski)

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