Paramount Skydance Is Buying The Free Press for $150 Million. What It Means for CBS.

The Free Press founder Bari Weiss begins as editor in chief of Skydance Paramount’s CBS News on Monday. (Getty Images)

Key Points

• Paramount Skydance is acquiring The Free Press for $150 million and appointing Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News.
• The Free Press, founded by Bari Weiss, will maintain its independence despite the acquisition by Paramount Skydance.
• Paramount Skydance, led by CEO David Ellison, recently merged with Paramount and secured exclusive UFC rights for $1.1 billion annually.

Paramount Skydance is acquiring The Free Press, the media company founded by journalist Bari Weiss, and making Weiss editor in chief of CBS News, the companies said Monday.

Paramount is paying $150 million in the cash-and-stock deal, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the agreement. The Free Press “will remain independent,” Weiss wrote in an open letter to the site’s 1.5 million subscribers. She begins at CBS News on Monday.

Shares of Paramount Skydance were marginally higher at $19.10 in early trading.

CEO David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, has gone on a shopping spree since his media company Skydance Media completed its merger with Paramount in August.

The company secured the exclusive rights to Ultimate Fighting Championship events in the U.S. in a seven-year deal worth an average of $1.1 billion a year. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Paramount was preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery , though it is unclear if a deal will happen.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com