Paramount Buys The Free Press for $150 Million and Puts Bari Weiss in Charge of CBS News

Paramount Skydance acquired Bari Weiss's outlet The Free Press for approximately $150 million and appointed her editor-in-chief of CBS News, with a stated mandate for balanced and fact-based coverage. The move came roughly three months after Paramount paid $16 million to settle President Trump's lawsuit over the editing of a '60 Minutes' interview, and about ten weeks after the Federal Communications Commission approved the company's $8 billion merger with Skydance.

No government demand for this acquisition or appointment has been documented. It is recorded here as a corporate decision that followed a period of regulatory and litigation pressure, not as a compelled concession, and the distinction should be preserved in any characterisation of it.

The acquisition closed and Weiss took up the role.