CBS News leaders Tom Cibrowski and Bari Weiss Photo credit: Michele Crowe/CBS Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The first place David Ellison went after closing Skydance's $8 billion deal for Paramount Global on Aug. 7 was the offices of CBS News on the west side of Manhattan. In meetings with the journalists and staff there, he praised the legacy of the TV news division, once the home of Edward R. Murrow, and committed to investing in its future. That vision, however, will be put to the test, as a long-rumored deal is now official, and the implications for the future of CBS News are consequential. Paramount on Monday said that it has officially acquired The Free Press, the digital publication founded by Bari Weiss, and will bring her in to the fold of CBS News. The move, which had been expected for weeks, is nonetheless being greeted with dread inside the news division. Related Stories Business CBS News Gets Ready to Meet Bari Weiss TV Paramount Acquires Rights to Series About Oct. 7 Israel Attacks Weiss will become editor-in-chief of CBS News, but will work outside of the current org chart by reporting directly to Paramount CEO David Ellison. "I have to imagine she will be his eyes and ears inside CBS News," one staffer at the company said. "We are thrilled to welcome Bari and The Free Press to Paramount and CBS News. Bari is a proven champion of independent, principled journalism, and I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News. 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," Ellison said in a statement. "This is an important initiative for our company and Bari will report directly to me - leading the work of The Free Press and collaborating with our CBS News team in the pursuit of making it the most trusted name in news," he added. "We believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home." "This is a great moment for The Free Press," Weiss added. "This partnership allows our ethos of fearless, independent journalism to reach an enormous, diverse, and influential audience. We honor the extraordinary legacy of CBS News by committing ourselves to a singular mission: building the most trusted news organization of the 21st Century." The Free Press will remain a standalone business outside of CBS News. According to one source, staff in the news division are more confused than anything by the hire: Weiss does not have TV experience (though her digital chops may be the more important skill given the trajectory of TV news right now), and her positioning of editor-in-chief is a perplexing one, with TV news organizations typically utilizing a different organizational structure than newspapers or magazines where the title is more frequently found. While TV news outlets have a central reporting structure, in practice each program is led editorially by the executive producer and anchors. And they are perplexed by the hire of the contrarian journalist, given the kind words that Ellison said to CBS News staff the morning that Skydance closed on its acquisition of Paramount, where he pointedly made the newsroom his first stop of the day. He also told journalists at a press conference later that morning that his intent was to maintain CBS' legacy as a news organization. "I think we want to be fact based and truth based as a news organization," Ellison said. "That's what we're about, that's the legacy of CBS. I mean, Edward Murrow founded this place. "Fundamentally, we want to be in the trust business, we want to be the truth business, we want to be in the fact business," he added, saying that they wanted to appeal to the majority of the country that "would define themselves from center left to center right, and really ensure that it's a place that can be true to the legacy that we're inheriting, and we're going to invest behind that." In a note to staff Monday, Ellison wrote that while the media "was founded with the mission of informing the public and fostering discussion on the issues of the day, too often it has become a platform that amplifies the very partisanship tearing our society apart." "I don't pretend to have a solution to this challenge. But I do believe we each have a responsibility to do our part," he added. "At Paramount, we have both a unique opportunity and an obligation as stewards of one of the most iconic and respected news organizations in the world. We are challenging ourselves to do better - recognizing that we have the ability to reach a broad audience and demonstrate constructive, respectful, and bipartisan dialogue in our own work. Our mission is clear: to ensure that this global platform remains a place where