Paramount on Monday announced it is hiring Bari Weiss to serve as editor in chief of CBS News and is purchasing her start up media company The Free Press for a reported $150 million.

The move, which had been buzzed about in media and political circles for weeks, places Weiss at one of the top perches in the broadcast news business and will raise immediate questions about whether CBS's coverage will move to the right.

A controversial figure in media and an outspoken critic of the mainstream press, Weiss founded the Free Press after leaving the New York Times as an columnist, criticizing the newspaper and other leading news outlets for what she described as groupthink and partisanship.

At CBS, Weiss will "shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms, and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news," Paramount said.

Weiss will report directly with Paramount's chief executive David Ellison and partner with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who reports to Paramount’s Chair of TV Media, George Cheeks.

Ellison, the son of tech billionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison, called Weiss' hiring "part of Paramount’s bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects – directly and passionately – to audiences around the world.”

Paramount over the summer merged with fellow moviemaker Skydance, a massive multi-billion dollar deal that earned approval from President Trump's FCC after the company agreed to pay the president $16 million to settle a lawsuit he brought against the network's preeminent news program 60 Minutes.

As part of the deal to aquire The Free Press, that outlet will maintain its own independent brand and operations, Paramount said, and continue to do reporting, video and audio podcasts, and events for its fast-growing community of subscribers.

"We would not be doing this if we did not believe in David Ellison, and the entire leadership team who took over Paramount this summer," Weiss wrote in a column published on Monday morning. "They are doubling down because they believe in news. Because they have courage. Because they love this country. And because they understand, as we do, that America cannot thrive without common facts, common truths, and a common reality."