Skydance CEO David Ellison has reportedly held talks with Bari Weiss to buy her online news site The Free Press — fueling growing speculation that he is wooing the right-of-center voice to join CBS News once his company’s long-stalled merger with Paramount is approved.
The discussions are in the early stages, a source close to the situation told The Post on Friday.
Ellison and Weiss — an opinion writer who started The Free Press in 2021 after a public falling out with the left-leaning New York Times — were both spotted attending this week’s Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. The annual “summer camp for billionaires” has historically been a deal-making hotbed.
Allen & Co. is a shareholder in The Free Press, along with more than 30 other investors that include venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and David Sacks, and the former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz, according to the Times, which first reported deal talks.
Ellison and Weiss have discussed several potential collaborations, including a role for Weiss in shaping CBS News’ editorial direction, though not in a managerial capacity, the Times added, citing two sources.
Skydance declined to comment. Weiss did not immediately return requests for comment.
Ellison has reportedly “quietly courted” Weiss to bring her on board at CBS News in some high-profile capacity for months. The duo reportedly met in New York City last year, with news of the meeting ruffling feathers at “60 Minutes,” the Status newsletter reported last month
The latest talks come as Skydance awaits approval from the Federal Communications Commission on its $8 billion merger with CBS News parent Paramount Global.
The deal has been throttled by President Trump-nominated FCC Chair Brendan Carr as the agency investigates the network’s alleged liberal media bias, as well as its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
Last week, CBS News agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump for allegedly deceptively editing a “60 Minutes” interview with his Democratic challenger Kamala Harris shortly before the election.
A CBS News source told The Post that bringing on Weiss won’t change that network’s “woke” drift, citing its culture of pushing back on authority.
“What Ellison needs to understand is that the anchors and the show executives think they can outlast any executive choice,” the source said, citing a revolving door of news executives and news presidents in the last few years.
The person descibed a “drag-your-feet” culture, in which new executives try to make bold moves, but they are ultimately ignored by the staff, who pays lip-service to them and wait until they’re pushed out.
“Bari Weiss will have an axe in her head in three minutes,” the person concluded.
In the spring, longtime “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens quit in protest, citing a lack of editorial freedoms. His boss, CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon, followed suit.
Weiss quit the Times opinions sections because she felt that the Gray Lady’s left-wing culture was hostile to moderate and conservative voices.
She launched The Free Press with her wife, former Times journalist Nellie Bowles, and Weiss’ sister Suzy Weiss, a former New York Post reporter.
The trio started the publication as an alternative to left-leaning outlets and sought to cover current events with a “common sense” point of view, tackling subjects such as anti-Semitism on college campuses, the debate over transgender rights in women’s sports, media bias and wokism.
Weiss has championed stories that shed a light on antisemitism across America and Europe following Hamas’ October 7 massacre in Israel, as well as developing a podcast series called “The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling,” featuring interviews with the “Harry Potter” author, and others, over her controversial views on transgender people.
She also hired veteran NPR journalist Uri Berliner, who resigned from the liberal outlet after being suspended for criticizing how the mainstream media — and his employer — had lost the public’s trust by approaching stories with a progressive bend.
It also hosts a series of live events that dig into hot topics such as immrigration and crime.
As of last summer, The Free Press had more than 50 employees and offices on both coasts.
The site has more than 136,000 subscribers paying around $8 a month, Axios reported in late December. The Times estimated that the site has roughly 1.5 million free and paid subscribers in total.
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