Ross Douthat is adding another job to his résumé, joining The Free Press as a weekly columnist while continuing as a correspondent for CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”
The former New York Times opinion columnist announced the move Thursday, extending his relationship with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who founded The Free Press and recruited Douthat to the network’s flagship newsmagazine earlier this year.
The arrangement puts Douthat in two different journalistic roles within the same corporate family: reporting for one of television’s most established newsmagazines while writing opinion columns for a digital publication known for its political and cultural commentary, often from a center-right perspective.
“This is not my day job,” Douthat wrote in his introductory Free Press column. “I am a newly minted correspondent for ’60 Minutes,’ where the goal is to ask probing questions, not sling political hot takes.”
Douthat said his weekly column would complement his television reporting, offering frameworks for understanding political, cultural and technological changes. The column will be available exclusively to paid Free Press subscribers.
The announcement follows Douthat’s move from The Times, where he had been an opinion columnist since 2009, to “60 Minutes” earlier this year. He joined the program amid a sweeping editorial overhaul under Weiss and new executive producer Nick Bilton, following the departures of several prominent correspondents, including Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.
The Free Press, meanwhile, is no longer an independent startup. Paramount acquired the publication in October 2025 as part of the deal that brought Weiss to CBS News, although the outlet continues to operate as a separate brand. Both now sit within David Ellison’s newly expanded Skydance media company.
Douthat’s dual role further illustrates the growing overlap between the two news organizations, even as they maintain distinct editorial formats and audiences.
In his announcement, Douthat recalled a 2020 conversation with Weiss, shortly after she left The Times, in which he encouraged her to launch a politically independent general-interest publication that could compete with The Atlantic and The New Yorker.
Weiss instead told him she planned to start with a Substack.
Six years later, Douthat is joining the publication that grew from that idea, bringing his opinion writing to The Free Press while maintaining his reporting role at CBS News.
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