Show Me The Money: Bari Weiss speaks onstage during Book Club Event With WSJ Columnist Peggy Noonan on November 19, 2024, in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press)
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In tonight’s edition, negotiations between Skydance Paramount CEO David Ellison to acquire Bari Weiss’s The Free Press may be close to settling on a deal. But CBS News staffers remain “panicked” about Weiss. We have details about why below.
Every year, power agent Ari Emanuel co-hosts The Weekend, an annual shindig that attracts some of the biggest players in media, tech, politics, and entertainment. Organizers stress it's very much “off the record” and they work overtime to keep the details hush-hush. But as Breaker readers know, journalism is something, someone, somewhere doesn't want you to know – all the rest is PR. So, below we reveal some of the expected guests and a few of the other details that they were trying to keep secret.
Plus, it’s Thursday, which means Journo Jobs is back. Tonight, gigs at Bloomberg, Fox News, TIME, Semafor, CNN, and The New York Times.
Finally, if you’re a journalism student or someone looking to break into the industry but may not be able to afford Breaker, drop us a line. We will try and work something out so you can be plugged into what’s really going on in the world’s greatest naval gazing industry.
Mentioned tonight: Bob Iger, Barry Diller, Charlie Rose, David Zaslav, Dana Walden, Robert Thomson, Joe Rogan, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Elon Musk, David Rhodes, Theo Von, Andrew Schulz, Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil, Tim Allan, Bianna Golodryga, Dylan Byers, Andrea Mitchell, Susan Zirinsky, Peter Alexander, Andy Mills, Neeraj Khemlani, Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, Adrienne Roark, Mark Halperin, Wendy McMahon, Walter Isaacson, Karlie Kloss, Ron Howard, David Solomon, Hamish McKenzie, Sean McNulty, Ian Mohr, Roger Friedman, Dade Hayes, Salman Rushdie, Margi Conklin, Lars Kahl, Michael Moynihan, Charles Lane, Alan Bergman and more.
A Weiss Man?
Let’s start tonight’s column with a little quiz. Can you name all the leaders of CBS News since David Rhodes stepped down as the network's news president in January 2019, after an eight-year run?
If you guessed: Susan Zirinsky, Neeraj Khemlani, Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, Adrienne Roark, and Wendy McMahon-you’d be spot on. In some cases, Breaker has had lunches that have lasted longer than the tenure of a CBS News President.
Former ABC News exec Tom Cibrowski has only been in the role for a matter of months. According to four people familiar with the situation, the news division has started to settle into a state of normalcy.
This comes after several tumultuous months under the leadership of McMahon that included the Trump v 60 Minutes lawsuit, now resolved with a $16m settlement, and the rebuking of morning anchor, Tony Dokoupil, over an interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates, which execs say fell short of the network’s editorial standards.
But reports that CBS owner and Skydance Paramount CEO David Ellison is on the verge of buying the Bari Weiss-founded The Free Press have put the news division into a state of “panic.”
At a press conference the day after the Skydance deal closed, Breaker asked Ellison about his talks with Weiss at Sun Valley.
He responded by saying that he "cannot comment on rumors and speculation,” adding that he took “about 50 meetings” at the billionaire's summer camp.
While not a done deal, as Puck’s Dylan Byers first reported, those with knowledge of the situation told Breaker on Thursday they expect a deal to close “in the next few weeks.”
The question then becomes what role Weiss will play at CBS News, and it's got many journalists there on edge. What staffers most fear is…
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