The Free Press: A New Media Venture by Bari Weiss
AI-generated context summary requested by a Free News Reader user. Sourced via Gemini from publicly available information — no paywalled content was accessed.
You hit a paywall. Here’s the context on this topic based on publicly available information. We did not access any paywalled content. View original article.
The Free Press: A New Media Venture by Bari Weiss
- The Free Press, founded by Bari Weiss, was acquired by Paramount Skydance in October 2025 for $150 million.
- Bari Weiss, formerly of The New York Times, launched the company as a newsletter called Common Sense in January 2021.
Full Summary — powered by AI
The Free Press is an American media company founded by opinion writer Bari Weiss and her spouse, Nellie Bowles. It originated as a Substack newsletter titled “Common Sense” in January 2021, following Weiss’s departure from The New York Times. The newsletter focused on politics, culture, and current events, and by August 2021, it had garnered 14,000 subscribers and an annual revenue of $800,000.
In 2022, “Common Sense” was rebranded as The Free Press and expanded into a full media company. This expansion included a growing staff, contributors, and a subscription-based business model. The Free Press aims to provide investigative journalism and commentary, emphasizing stories that it believes are often overlooked or distorted by other media outlets. The company also produces the “Honestly” podcast and has developed audio and video documentaries. By October 2023, The Free Press employed approximately 25 staff members in New York City and Los Angeles.
In October 2025, Paramount Skydance acquired The Free Press for $150 million. As part of this acquisition, Bari Weiss was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News. This move sparked discussion regarding a potential ideological shift at CBS News, with some critics interpreting it as a rightward lean. Weiss’s tenure at CBS News has included significant changes, such as the replacement of the executive producer of “60 Minutes” in May 2026 and the firing of veteran correspondent Scott Pelley in June 2026.