Bari Weiss is the new editor-in-chief of CBS News after Paramount buys
her website
[October 07, 2025]
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount said Monday that it has bought the news and
commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss,
as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, saying it believes the country longs
for news that is balanced and fact-based.
It's a bold step for the television network of Walter Cronkite, Dan
Rather and “60 Minutes,” long viewed by many conservatives as the
personification of a liberal media establishment. The network is placing
someone in a leadership role who has developed a reputation for
resisting orthodoxy and fighting “woke” culture.
“I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will
invigorate CBS News,” said David Ellison, who took over this summer as
the corporate leader overseeing the network when his company, Skydance,
purchased Paramount. “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.”
No purchase price was announced for The Free Press, which has grown to
reach 1.5 million subscribers since Weiss started it in 2021 after
leaving The New York Times as an opinion editor. When she left the
Times, she wrote a letter of resignation that spoke of a culture of
intolerance at the newspaper and said she was bullied by colleagues who
disagreed with her.
Weiss will report directly to Ellison and partner with the current CBS
News President Tom Cibrowski, who reports to Paramount executive George
Cheeks.
Editor-in-chief is a new role at CBS News. Ellison said that Weiss will
“shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms and
lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news.”
In a letter to CBS News employees on Monday, Weiss said that watching
CBS was part of a family tradition growing up in Pittsburgh. Her goal in
the next few weeks is to get to know the staff, she said.
“I want to hear from you about what’s working, what isn’t, and your
thoughts on how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization
in America and the world,” Weiss wrote. “I’ll approach it the way any
reporters would — with an open mind, a fresh notebook and an urgent
deadline.”
Some at CBS News have been concerned about what they see as signs that
the news division is moving in a direction more friendly to President
Donald Trump. Paramount's merger with Skydance was approved by the
administration shortly after Paramount settled the president's lawsuit
against “60 Minutes.” Ellison has hired Kenneth Weinstein, former head
of a conservative think tank and a Trump contributor, as an ombudsman to
examine complaints about CBS News.
“60 Minutes,” which is two weeks into its new season, has been seeking
an interview with Trump.
CBS isn’t the only news organization to face pressure from the
president. He also settled a lawsuit against ABC News, has sued The New
York Times and Wall Street Journal, and is fighting a battle with The
Associated Press over access.
Broadcast news organizations are generally fading in influence with the
growth of online alternatives, and have aging audiences. CBS is
generally third in popularity behind ABC and NBC, but “60 Minutes” and
“CBS News Sunday Morning” have devoted fan bases.
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The CBS logo is displayed on the exterior of CBS Scene Restaurant
and Bar, at Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, Mass., Feb. 13, 2012.
(AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
 Rather, who stepped down as anchor
and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News” in 2005, told The
Associated Press that he did not know Weiss and hopes she gets to
know the people at CBS News before making any big changes.
“No one has to send a memo to everyone down the line at CBS News
about what is going on with journalism and this presidency,” Rather
said. “It is obvious that there is tremendous pressure to bend the
knee to the Trump administration. The fear is that this appointment
is part of that overall play.”
Weiss has worked in opinion journalism and has little background in
broadcast journalism. She has described herself politically as a
centrist and wrote a column for the New York Post in 2021 headlined,
“10 ways to fight back against woke culture.”
Writing for the liberal website the Unpopulist, Matt Johnson said
that “one reason for The Free Press' popularity is that it offers
intellectual reassurances to legions of anti-anti-Trump readers —
sophisticated conservatives who may be uneasy about Trumpism, yet
want to believe that wokeness and other left-wing excesses are the
primary threats to western civilization.”
Weiss told fellow CBS News employees that she stood for the same
core journalistic values that have defined the profession from the
beginning, including reporting on the world as it actually is and
being fair, fearless and factual.
In separate staff memos, Ellison and Weiss outlined similar
philosophies about a mainstream America being ill-served by a
destructive form of partisanship.
“When we reduce every issue to ‘us vs. them’ or ‘my way vs. the
wrong way,’ we close ourselves off from listening, learning and
ultimately growing, both as individuals and as a society," Ellison
wrote. "I don't pretend to have a solution to this challenge. But I
do believe we each have a responsibility to do our part.”
Weiss will remain as the boss of The Free Press, which she indicated
would continue on the same course but expand more quickly with
Paramount’s money. Indeed, she said in a letter to subscribers that
The Free Press will help reshape CBS News.
She said mainstream Americans — which she defined as being
politically mixed and pragmatic — are being ill-served by an
illiberalism from the fringes of society.
“On the one hand, an America-loathing far left,” she wrote. “On the
other, a history-erasing far right. These extremes do not represent
the majority of the country, but they have increasing power in our
politics, our culture and our media ecosystem.”
In a Pew Research Center survey taken earlier this year, 56% of
Americans who are Democrats or lean Democrats say they trust CBS
News, while only 23% of Republicans say the same thing. Those levels
are similar across all major broadcast media outlets, with
Republicans primarily turning to Fox News Channel.
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