• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

You Only Live Weiss

After David Ellison’s yearlong courtship, Free Press founder Bari Weiss will finally begin leading CBS News on Monday. But can an editor who rose on her center-right-ish criticism of the mainstream media find her way now that she’s once again a part of it?

Bari Weiss
Bari’s arrangement includes a rather unconventional choreography. She will report directly to Ellison rather than CBS News president Tom Cibrowski. Photo: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
October 3, 2025

Join Puck to listen to this article

Next Monday, Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison plans to announce that he has acquired The Free Press, the heterodox, oft-agitational news- and opinion-focused media company, and will install its founder, Bari Weiss, as editor-in-chief of CBS News. Five years ago, of course, this outcome would have seemed absolutely delusional—beyond batshit crazy improbable. Bari resigned from the New York Times Opinion page in protest of its allegedly illiberal drift and started a Substack. Next week, she’ll be given carte blanche to establish the editorial philosophy of one of America’s most storied news networks. She’ll also receive a sizable windfall. As I first reported last month, David’s cash-and-stock deal values The Free Press at about $150 million, somewhere between an 8x and 10x multiple based on current revenues. Life comes at you fast, I guess.