By Justin Baragona

Copyright independent

The Free Press, the “heterodox” and anti-woke digital media outlet recently purchased by Paramount Skydance for $150 million, saw its web traffic surge in the month before its founder, Bari Weiss, was named the new editor-in-chief of CBS News.

According to The Righting, a news site that analyzes right-wing media, the stridently pro-Israel publication drew 5.3 million visits during September, representing a 44 percent year-over-year increase.

The increased traffic to the media startup, which Weiss launched just a few years ago after famously quitting the New York Times over its “illiberal environment” and supposed left-wing editorial slant, will likely be touted by Paramount chief David Ellison as justification for the hefty price he paid for the site.

Despite the influx of readers and subscribers to The Free Press in recent months (the Substack-based site boasts 170,000 paid subscriptions), media business analysts have suggested that Ellison still overpaid to acquire the company – which also resulted in Weiss being named as CBS News’ editorial leader.

“The startup, which launched in 2021, is generating around $20 million in revenue, according to a person familiar with the matter. That means Paramount is paying 7.5 times revenue for the outlet,” AdWeek’s Mark Stenberg reported.

“The multiple places the deal outside normal media economics, according to interviews with four digital media [Mergers and acquisitions] experts,” Stenberg added. “In most transactions, both legacy and digital outlets trade at five to 15 times [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization], not revenue.”

Of course, Ellison – the son of Oracle founder and top Trump ally Larry Ellison – may not have just been considering future revenue when it came to installing Weiss at the top of CBS News and purchasing her site, which has devoted much of its energy to savaging the legacy media for its so-called wokeness.

“This isn’t a financial bet, it’s a cultural one. Ellison isn’t buying revenue; he’s buying alignment,” Business Insider’s Peter Kafka wrote.

“Maybe Ellison, who previously supported Democrats — or his father, Larry Ellison, an open Trump supporter — genuinely believes the media is too liberal and needs to be moved rightward,” he added. “Maybe he’s simply appeasing Trump and his allies, like [Federal Communications Commission] chair Brendan Carr, who had real power to slow or stop his merger. Either explanation fits the facts.”

The Righting, meanwhile, found that in the past two years, The Free Press has seen its audience numbers significantly increase – all while similar sites have experienced a drop over the same period.

Besides its 44 percent bump last month compared to September 2024, the Weiss-founded site was up 134 percent compared to the same month in 2023, which was during its first full year of operation under its current name. (After leaving the Times, Weiss – along with her spouse Nellie Bowles and sister Suzy – launched the Substack blog Common Sense, which later morphed into The Free Press.)

Comparing The Free Press’ growth in September, The Righting noted that only one other right-wing site that it monitors surpassed the “radically centrist” Weiss’ outlet in year-over-year gains – Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, which was up 51 percent.

“While most news websites experienced declines in September visits compared to a year ago when the home stretch of the presidential election drove traffic, The Free Press’s robust increase shows a strong consumer demand for the content available on the site,” The Righting’s president Howard Polskin said in a statement. “Visits to Truth Social also grew significantly in September, driven in part by the public’s thirst for news and opinion regarding the September shooting of Charlie Kirk.”

As for mainstream news organizations, the New York Times posted a 4 percent rise compared to September 2024, while CNN declined by 11 percent and The Washington Post suffered a 33 percent drop.

Meanwhile, during her first editorial call with CBS News staffers – who had already been “literally freaking out” over her ascension to the top of the network – Weiss said she was excited for the newsroom to get to know The Free Press and that she wanted to “win” before delivering a rallying cry.

‘Let’s do the f***ing news,” she exclaimed, prompting employees to roll their eyes at the “cringey” callback to Aaron Sorkin’s polarizing series The Newsroom.