The Free Press goes from zero to $150m valuation in five years on Substack

Substack-based news publication The Free Press has been bought by Paramount for a reported $150m (£111m) in cash and stock.

Founder, chief executive and editor-in-chief Bari Weiss will continue in her roles but also become editor-in-chief of CBS News reporting directly to its new owner, Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s son David Ellison.

The Free Press will continue as its own individual brand on Substack while Weiss will “shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms, and lead innovation” at CBS News.

Paramount said the deal would combine the scale and reach of CBS News with the “culture-shaping voice and innovative spirit” of The Free Press.

Weiss started a newsletter called Common Sense in 2021 after quitting The New York Times where she was an opinion writer as she felt it was following “narrow, partisan ideas”.

She said she wanted to cover stories “the legacy media was scared to touch or had overlooked as a result of its incuriousness, politesse, or entrenched interests”.

Common Sense rebranded as The Free Press in December 2022, saying at the time: “One journalist’s newsletter slowly grew into a 21st-century newsroom. Now, we’re a team of full-time editors, reporters, and producers, spread across the country, who regularly break news and drive the conversation.”

The title is seen as leaning to the right politically and sceptical about ‘woke’ values.

The Free Press has more than 170,000 paying subscribers (mostly paying $10 per month), which could mean revenue of about $18.4m after Substack has taken its 10% share. Paramount said revenue was up 82% in the past year. It also has around 1.3 million free newsletter subscribers.

In 2024 The Free Press raised $15m in funding and got valued at more than $100m.

The Free Press was the only Substack-based publication to make it onto Press Gazette’s latest 100k Club list of news outlets with 100,000 or more paying digital subscribers in February. At that point it had 150,000 paying subscribers, with a goal to reach 250,000 this year, and 1.1 million people on its email list.

This meant that in February The Free Press made up 3.75% of all paying subscribers to a Substack publication.

‘Immense opportunity for ambitious new media founders’ says Substack co-founder

Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie celebrated the deal, arguing that “the most remarkable feature of this story is that a media startup went from zero to a nine-figure outcome in the space of three years, at a time when many have been led to believe that news is a dying business.

“As much as this deal feels like a seismic event in the media business, it won’t be the last of its kind. The media is going through a volatile transition as the industry adjusts to the ongoing ramifications of the internet and the start of the AI age, but the public’s appetite for trustworthy storytelling is greater than ever.

“While some of the giants of yesterday are struggling to survive this transition, there is an immense opportunity for ambitious new media founders to build a new generation of institutions.”

Mackenzie noted that launching publications like The Free Press, as well as other big names like Zeteo and The Bulwark, on Substack’s tech platform meant their founders can “scale faster, and more cost efficiently, than ever before… [they] didn’t need to hire developers, wrestle with a dated content management system, or stress about subscriber profile management.

“They can instead dedicate almost all of their focus to the work that matters most: their journalism.” The Free Press does now have a more bespoke visual identity than many Substack publications that use a similar template.

The Free Press targets ‘enormous, diverse’ audience

The Free Press has lifted its paywall from today (Monday 6 October) until Sunday (12 October) to allow new audiences to see its offering.

Weiss said in a statement: “This is a great moment for The Free Press. This partnership allows our ethos of fearless, independent journalism to reach an enormous, diverse, and influential audience.”

She told The Free Press readers she wants the publication to reach more of the 340 million people in America “as quickly as possible”.

“Our subscribers will still get the daily journalism they rely on: investigative reports, features, columns, podcasts, and more. And The Free Press, which will remain independent, will be growing even faster within Paramount. We’ll be investing heavily in this community, and so many of the things we’ve long dreamed about will become possible much more quickly.

“What does this mean for CBS News? It means a redoubled commitment to great journalism. It means building on a storied legacy—and bringing that historic newsroom into 2025 and beyond. Most of all, it means working tirelessly to make sure CBS News is the most trusted news organization in the world.”

Before Ellison’s takeover of Paramount in August, the company paid $16m (£13.5m) to settle a legal dispute with President Donald Trump after he claimed an interview with his former rival at the ballots Kamala Harris had been deceptively edited and affected the election.

Ellison told Paramount staff on Monday: “I am confident that, in the coming years, CBS News and The Free Press will make big strides and be at the forefront of a much-needed transformation in how news is gathered, reported, and delivered.

“Our goal is to broaden our reach while solidifying our position as a leading voice in American journalism. Every step of the way, trust and facts will remain our guiding principles as we work every day to strengthen and deepen our connection with our audience.”

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