Bari Weiss, the anti-woke former New York Times opinion editor who resigned from the paper and founded her own media company, is set to take the reins at CBS News.
Weiss ‘is on the verge’ of having her publication, The Free Press, acquired by CBS parent company Paramount Skydance and given control of CBS News, sources told Puck Wednesday.
Weiss has been ‘informally consulting’ CBS for ‘a while,’ a source told The Daily Mail.
The deal – expected to be worth ‘well above’ the media startup’s most recent $100million valuation but ‘well below’ the $200million Weiss has said it was worth – is nearly a done deal, Puck reported.
Weiss, 41, who quit the New York Times in 2020 over its ‘illiberal environment,’ counts more than 1.25million subscribers to The Free Press, Axios reported.
Weiss’ expected hiring by new Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, is set to make waves within the CBS newsroom after a tumultuous year.
In October, Donald Trump sued the network over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that he claimed was deceptively edited.
In the spring, 60 Minutes Executive Producer Bill Owens and CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon both resigned over concerns with the company’s direction.
Bari Weiss, the anti-woke former New York Times opinion editor who resigned from the paper and founded her own media company, is set to take the the reins at CBS News
Weiss’ expected hiring by new Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, is set to make waves within the CBS newsroom after a tumultuous year
Paramount ultimately agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle the lawsuit, paving the way for the administration’s approval of an $8billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount last month.
Staff at CBS News are now fretting over the expected arrival of Weiss, who has regularly criticized the state of legacy media and left-leaning views.
‘There’s real fear in the building right now,’ our source said.
‘Veteran reporters who’ve been here for decades are whispering about whether they’ll still have a job by the end of the year.’
A source told The Wrap that Paramount is expecting resignations once Weiss is hired.
‘Staff morale is at an all-time low. People are scared, plain and simple,’ our source added. ‘Everyone knows a news boss mean big changes, and no one feels secure.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to CBS News and Weiss for comment.
