Background: In 2021, US journalist Bari Weiss founded The Free Press from her living room after leaving The New York Times in 2020 over disagreements about the paper’s direction. Since then, the publication has grown rapidly to 1.5 million subscribers on Substack and becoming one of the most influential independent media outlets in the US.

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What happened: Now, Paramount Skydance, the newly merged entertainment giant, has announced plans to acquire The Free Press for $150 million USD. Once the deal closes, The Free Presswill sit under CBS, the US mass-media company that’s been around since 1927.

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What else: While The Free Press’ audience may not rival the biggest media outlets, its 175,000 paying subscribers and $20 million USD in annual revenue are impressive for a Substack-based newsletter. Not bad for a publication that started with a laptop and an Instagram page.

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What's the key learning?

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💡A handful of creators can now rival newsrooms that took a century to build. Platforms like Substack, Patreon and YouTube have flipped the traditional playbook.

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💡These platforms allow small and focused teams to build personal connections with their audience and generate subscription revenue instead of ads.The Free Press has been able to successfully convert a huge chunk of its audience, with a paid conversion rate of 11.6%, which is far higher than the typical 0.5% to 2% for most media publishers.

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💡Big players are now buying into creator-led brands not for their infrastructure, but for their influence and deep connection with their communities. But scaling those creator-led brands under corporate ownership remains the big question mark.