Bari Weiss has officially announced that she and the digital startup she founded — The Free Press — is joining Paramount Skydance and CBS News.
In a video published to social media, Weiss confirmed that her company had been purchased by the news giant.
In the video, she shared that as Editor-in-Chief of the network, she’ll have one goal in mind.
“It means a redoubled commitment to great journalism,” she shared. “It means building on a storied legacy and bringing that historic newsroom into 2025 and beyond. Most of all, it means working tirelessly to make sure CBS is the most trusted news organization in the world.”
She added that Paramount Skydance executives like David Ellison are “doubling down because they believe, because they have courage, because they love this country, and because they understand, as we do, that America cannot thrive without common facts, common truths and a common reality.”
Weiss added that she believes her commitment to journalism has led to the acquisition by Paramount Skydance and she’ll help operate the company’s news brands in a similar fashion.
“From day one, the promise and the business proposition of The Free Press was simple: we would marry the quality of the Old World to the freedom of the new,” Weiss said. “We would seek the truth and tell it plainly, and we would treat 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 worse, a fantasy. They said that the internet killed journalism forever, and that there simply weren’t enough Americans out there in search of media driven by honesty, independence, and integrity.”
She added that the appetite from the audience proves “that there is a market, a big one, for honest journalism” and that the audience has “given us a mandate to pursue that mission from an even bigger platform.”
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