David [Ellison’s] offer for The Free Press is expected to be well above the site’s most recent $100 million valuation, but well below the $200 million figure that was recently floated in the Financial Times. (That was an absurd ask; The Free Press does $15 million in annual subscription revenue, and Bari’s politically charged content makes it hard to scale the advertising business. Plus, there’s no tech stack—it’s all on Substack.) Either way, it will land Weiss a king’s ransom just a little over five years after her dramatic departure from the Times. The deal is not done yet, of course, but, as a source with knowledge of the negotiations told me this afternoon, it is “on the 1-yard line.”
It’s Not Dan Rather’s Network Anymore…
As part of the deal, I am told David plans to give Bari a role at CBS News that would, among other things, task his fellow Millennial with guiding the editorial direction of the division. Bari’s avowedly pro-Israel and anti-woke worldview—not to mention her broadly shit-kicking anti-establishment disposition—would inevitably inspire blowback from various corners of the newsroom, and could dramatically change the editorial posture and reputation of one of the most storied, and certainly self-important, institutions in American journalism. For David, that’s likely part of the point.
If this actually happens, the meltdowns at CBS News will be astonishing to watch; recall the struggle sessions there last fall over Tony Dokoupil actually committing journalism in an interview with leftist Ta-Nehisi Coates.
