Outlet profile

The Free Press (Opinion)

U.S. center-right / heterodox, anti-'woke'

Owned byOwned by Paramount Skydance (chaired and run by David Ellison), which bought it in October 2025. Co-founder Bari Weiss, who is also editor-in-chief of CBS News, still leads it. The deal reportedly valued it at about $150 million.

FundingMainly reader subscriptions. It reported more than 170,000 paid subscribers out of about 1.5 million total on Substack when it was sold. Other revenue comes from events, podcasts and video, and now Paramount's corporate backing. Early investors included venture capital firms.

On the administrationmixed

Background

Bari Weiss, a former New York Times opinion editor, launched The Free Press in 2021 with her wife Nellie Bowles and her sister Suzy Weiss. It started as a Substack newsletter, and its core pitch was that mainstream media is reflexively liberal. It grew to a large audience and hired writers who are often described as heterodox or centrist-to-right. In October 2025, Paramount Skydance bought it for a reported $150 million and named Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News. She reports directly to CEO David Ellison. The outlet says it keeps its own brand and operations, including reporting, podcasts and events. Supporters see it as a space for views that other outlets underplay. Critics say it is ideologically one-sided and that some of its original reporting reads like administration press releases. The ownership tie has drawn extra scrutiny, because Weiss's decisions at CBS, such as pulling a 60 Minutes story on an El Salvador detention center, have led critics to say she is tilting coverage toward the Trump administration. Weiss and Paramount reject claims of political bias. I could not verify details of its most recent opinion coverage beyond these reports, so the stance rating is based on what the sources describe.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-30; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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