Bari Weiss is capturing the "Cambrian Explosion" of independent voices. Could The Free Press be the next Vice?

Weiss is targeting a huge untapped market of confused Americans trying to figure out how to think about third rail topics. Can she bring civility to disagreement?

Credit: Steven Simko.

Bari Weiss is building an alternative media empire at The Free Press - delivering readers reality checks alongside nuanced debate on knotty third rail topics from feminism, gender, race and politics. The Free Press revealed what was happening inside one pediatric clinic treating trans kids and prompted the Missouri AG to take a look. Weiss also promoted a unique look at the culture wars, in a much discussed podcast, “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling.”

Weiss now has some 450,000 subscribers, twenty staff and newsrooms in New York and LA. Tonight, she’s hosting a live debate in Los Angeles examining whether the sexual revolution has failed.  Events are the latest spoke in her media start-up flywheel that’s just getting rolling.

Weiss spoke to The Media Mix about her plans for a possible Presidential debate, why she thinks current media choices are “fucking insane,” and what’s behind her incredible energy for this project launched just two years after her spectacular resignation letter from the New York Times.  

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q: You felt that a mob on Twitter, (now X,) was scaring editors and influencing decision-making at the New York Times. Has that view changed since Elon Musk took over and altered the make-up of X? Has the New York Times changed too?

Bari Weiss: I feel similarly to the way I felt when I left, which is what I put in that [resignation] letter. Some of the best reporters in the world are still at the Times and I’m still a loyal reader.  Also I believe the Times has allowed itself to be captured by small political elitist minority that is vastly out of step with where many Americans are and it is shirking its responsibility to hold up the mirror to the world as it is, by fixating on the views and curiosity of that one group of people. 

I definitely personally rely on Twitter way less than I used to. The transformation of the platform under Elon has made it hard. It used to be that you could rely on the blue check marks and that would mean something and now it [the accounts] can literally be anyone. It has diluted the power. People I follow aren’t there anymore.  I’m getting served up just randoms and then a huge number of ads for Cheech and Chong and a lot of AI services. 

Q: What do you think about the current media landscape?

Bari Weiss:  Tucker Carlson is talking about how Trump is going to be assassinated and Rachel Maddow is talking about how Trump could be a dictator for life and I’m like get me out of this hell where these are my choices. It’s so fucking insane.

In every single talk I gave about my book or politics, the one first question I would get is, “I used to be an NPR listener, I used to be a loyal reader of the Washington Post and I still sometimes tune in or read but it’s not like it used to be. Where is the one place I can go where there is news and stories that I can trust?”

The answer is a very long email that I would send with 15 newsletters, Twitter accounts and different podcasts and people would look at me like I had a third eye and say, “ I’m a lawyer, I’m an accountant, I have children, I don't have time for this, give me one place,” and that’s ultimately what we want to be doing, creating and curating the best of the independent voices that you can trust.

Q: What is in your media diet? How are you finding those voices?

Bari Weiss: I love reading Air Mail, The New Statesman, newsletter Pirate Wires, podcast Blocked and Reported.  Those are niche things but I love them. One of the beautiful things about our moment is that we are living through a Cambrian explosion of new, independent media but the challenge for busy people is that unless you live online, like I do, it’s very hard to find it. The old places have lost the trust but they still have distribution, but the new people have the authenticity and energy and often the trust but they don’t have the giant megaphone, but can they get it. Those are the questions people like me are thinking about. 

Q: Your live debate show tonight is about whether the sexual revolution has failed? Where does feminism stand right now? 

Bari Weiss: Deeply confused, and torn apart. Maybe it could be the headline of the sixties and the advent of the sexual revolution. In preparing for the debate we are hosting, there are so many tensions between feminism and freedom, ideology and biology, sex and sovereignty, those have been with us for a really long time.  What’s changed about our moment is the revolutions of science and technology have allowed people to modify their bodies in ways that were not possible before and that’s changed the conversation. 

You have in the case of trans rights versus women's rights, a clash of rights claims.  Do we value pitting total inclusion against the value of protecting women’s spaces and those are two claims that can’t be fully reconciled.

We had talked about having a debate about populism and a Presidential debate.  This one felt very us. It’s really hard to talk about, and touches on everyone. It can feel like a niche issue but it’s had a tremendous impact on men, on people’s children, teenagers and it doesn’t fall along political lines. 

Q: Are you discussing a Presidential Debate? 

Bari Weiss: We’ve had 8 or 9 candidates on Honestly [Bari Weiss’ podcast]. We are not going to stop until we’ve had every single one of them. Look at the way presidential debates happen. They fail to answer the most urgent and interesting questions. And it’s done in a way that they have 30 second sound bites to answer some of the most pressing questions in American life.

You only need to look at the success of independent podcasting versus what’s going on on cable to see people are interested in something different, deeper conversations that aren’t as predictable and not people on stage performing a part. I watched the Republican debate thinking I think we could do this differently.  I’ve been talking to a number of different candidates about getting on stage about doing a debate or Town Hall. 

Q: What are your ambitions for the future of The Free Press? 

Bari Weiss: If my goal had been to make a good living and get a fancier car, or buy a place by the beach, I would have kept this a solo act, but my goal is to build a great American media company. It’s to revive real journalism, change the conversation in the culture. The only way to do that is to do it methodically, carefully, sometimes giving up short term opportunities for long term value. I hope when people watch what we’re doing, they see a company fulfilling on that promise.

Trust me I’m not a born entrepreneur, if I can do this, other people can too. Of course I’m pinching myself. It’s so exciting, yet I also feel like OK 450,000 subscribers, how do I get to tens of millions. 

I love the subscription business but I’m as aware as anyone of the pitfalls of audience capture but we are definitely looking for opportunities to diversify in events, advertising or other verticals. I can’t believe I just used that word. I sound like a start-up person.

We haven’t raised a Series A. It’s TBD. Like everyone in the media world, I’ve watched with humility as goliaths have been brought to their knees, so I want to learn from those lessons about growing in a responsible way.