The Times quotes “three people briefed on the discussions between the companies,” who say that Ellison is moving forward with plans to buy Weiss’ media organization The Free Press—of recent “Oh, I hope that AI movie bot is a sexy virgin!” fame—as part of a plan to install her somewhere at the top of CBS News. The deal would apparently value The Free Press, founded as a newsletter after Weiss left The New York Times in 2020 (in a cloud of complaining loudly about woke), at $150 million.
The Times piece doesn’t provide details on what Weiss’ new Editor In Chief job—a new position for the TV news organization—would entail, but earlier reporting by Puck‘s Dylan Byers stated that Weiss will report directly to Ellison, bypassing what would normally be several layers of buffering between the newsroom and the company’s CEO. (The Times quotes sources saying CBS News president Tom Cibrowski will stay on in his position and “work alongside” Weiss.) It feels worth noting, in this context, that Weiss’ career in media—which also included an earlier stint at The Wall Street Journal—has basically never involved, well, news. Although The Free Press does reporting, before founding it Weiss worked largely as a book reviewer, columnist, and otherwise as an opinion writer. Her success (without getting into value judgments or throwing shade) has been predicated almost entirely, not on reporting or traditional journalism, but on staking out cultural and political positions and presenting them aggressively and provocatively. Which is, presumably, the point.
News of the forthcoming deal comes late into what’s been an extremely rough year for CBS News, and especially flagship program 60 Minutes. The network’s news team was ultimately forced to watch management settle (to the tune of $16 million) with Donald Trump after he alleged that he had been hideously harmed by the editing of a Kamala Harris interview during the 2024 election; it’s also faced major staff resignations, most notably from former 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens, who cited corporate pressure to shape news coverage as the reason he was leaving his job. In an interview back in May (before the settlement and subsequent sale), veteran reporter Lesley Stahl was already talking about “mourning” the coming days. She notably despaired at a public loss of faith in TV news, saying, “The public doesn’t seem to want what we do to be part of our public life.”
