Bari Weiss is heading back into the world of “having a boss.” David Ellison’s Paramount is purchasing Weiss’s conservative digital-media publication, the Free Press, and installing Weiss as the head of CBS News, Paramount confirmed October 6. CBS bought TFP for around $150 million in cash and Paramount stock, per the New York Times. “Bari is a proven champion of independent, principled journalism, and I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News,” Ellison said in a statement. “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.” As the head of CBS News, Weiss will report directly to Ellison and work on programs including 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning. The Free Press, meanwhile, will continue to have an independent brand and publish its own reporting, video, and podcasts.

Weiss began the Free Press in 2021 after she publicly resigned, or in her worlds “self-expelled,” from the New York Times “Opinion” section. “Twitter is not on the masthead of the New York Times,” Weiss wrote in a public letter to the paper’s publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. “But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.” In the letter, Weiss specifically referenced the fallout over the “Opinion” pages publishing an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton that called for “an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain, and ultimately deter lawbreakers” in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing. Then-editor James Bennet resigned due to staff outcry over the editorial, admitting to staff he had not read it before publication. Four years after Weiss began the publication, the Free Press now has 1.5 million subscribers.

In a letter to Free Press subscribers on October 6, Weiss wrote that the purchase gives the Free Press “a chance to help reshape a storied media organization — to help guide CBS News into a future that honors those great values that underpin The Free Press and the best of American journalism.” Per the outlet’s “About” page, those values include “honesty, doggedness, and fierce independence.” Well, technically a little less independent now.

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 As David Ellison purchases her conservative publication, the Free Press.