Barry Weiss is a symbol of a shift away from institutions and toward a more independent

do-it-yourself style of journalism and commentary. Weiss is building a new brand using the

sub-stack platform. It's called Common Sense. So how's it going so far? What is she

hoping to accomplish? Those are a couple of the questions for this week's Reliable

Sources podcast. Alright, let's cue the music. I'm Brian Stelter and this weekly podcast

is our chance to go more in-depth talking with media leaders and newsmakers about how the

news gets made. Barry Weiss is frequently in the news and I think her trajectory can

be summed up through two headlines, a pair of headlines from Market Watch. The first

was from July of 2020. The headline says New York Times columnist Barry Weiss resigns,

citing constant bullying and a hostile work environment. Weiss was an opinion editor at

the Times. She said there was an illiberal environment there and she decided to walk

away. Then here's the second headline from Market Watch. This is from August of this

year, 2021. It says Times walk out Barry Weiss, breaks the rules, makes a mint. The story

reported that she had no plan when she left the Times but decided to launch a sub-stack

at create a subscription product called Common Sense and she said she wished she had

done it sooner. Quoting for Market Watch, Weiss is already making way more money than

she did working for the New York Times. The article indicated that her revenues were

running a quote annual rate of more than $800,000 a year and rising and she's using the

revenue to pay writers for their contributions to Common Sense so she's building a brand

bigger than her own. Of course, do Google Barry Weiss's name, there's all sorts of controversy,

some of which she says is totally unfounded but she is always in the news for one reason

or another. In this coming Saturday, October 16th, she'll be accepting the Daniel Pearl

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