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I will always love conservative journalism, but I doubt I would be pursuing a career in media were it not for a disaffected liberal and her Substack. The Free Press gave me hope for the longevity and relevance of journalism. 

Originally named Common Sense, the startup independent media company founded by former New York Times staffer Bari Weiss grew from a Substack to a multi-media platform with 1.5 million subscribers. Last week, Paramount bought The Free Press for $150 million. Weiss will now lead CBS News, owned by Paramount, as editor-in-chief while continuing her responsibilities as CEO and editor-in-chief of The Free Press. 

I do not agree with everything I read in its virtual pages, but The Free Press is the only publication delivered daily to my mailbox that had me lying on my bed poring over a 6,000-word piece on free birth or laughing out loud in the airport as I read an 88-year-old writer’s reflections on aging in a digital world. “Things Worth Remembering” is the highlight of my weekend, and reading for my next class takes a backseat when Suzy Weiss publishes a culture column. 

When I first became interested in writing professionally, many journalists I met offered a jaded vision for my future. The written word is dead, they said. AI will take over. Objectivity does not exist, and journalism should be activism. 

But one subscriber at a time, The Free Press showed there is still a place in the market for innovative reporting, nuanced takes, and long-form personal essays. And not only is there space — readers are starving for it. 

Stories like Madeleine Kearns’ “How Catholicism Got Cool” and Kat Rosenfield’s “The Men Who Lost Their Babies” are the pieces I want to read and the kind of stories I hope to write in this field. 

Readers can only hope The Free Press remains consistent under the canopy of CBS. Regardless, the success of the platform sets a new standard in the industry for journalistic integrity, writing quality, and diversity of perspective. The platform succeeded by giving readers what legacy media and much of conservative media did not: truth, nuance, and common sense. 

When the 2020s changed the playing field for legacy media, The Free Press changed the game. Whatever comes next, American journalism as a whole will be better for it.

Moira Gleason is a senior studying English.