Paramount Buys Bari Weiss’s the Free Press for $150 Million

Can Bari Weiss reinvent CBS News?

That is what Paramount PSKY -5.40%decrease; red down pointing triangle Chief Executive David Ellison is betting on with a $150 million deal to acquire the Free Press, the popular news and opinion site Weiss founded in 2021 as a check on what she saw as the media’s “woke” orthodoxy.

He is installing the outspoken journalist as editor in chief of CBS News and empowering her to set the storied news organization’s editorial vision.

“The combination of the Free Press and CBS News will create a news organization that ultimately becomes one of the most trusted destinations for news in this...