Private Markets, Angel and Secondary Investing, Sacra

Sacra

Private Markets, Angel and Secondary Investing

Bringing transparency to private markets so investors, founders, and employees can build on conviction. Sacra delivers deeply researched insights on the private companies shaping tomorrow's markets. By surfacing the data, context, and operator perspective that are missing from private markets today, we help secondary buyers and sellers price equity accurately and unlock liquidity for the people building these businesses.

Private Capital Markets

<ul><li>Sacra estimates that The Free Press hit $20M in annualized revenue in September 2025, up 48% year-over-year from $13.8M in September 2024 and up from $16M at the end of 2024.</li><li>Paramount Skydance acquired The Free Press in October 2025 for a reported $150 million.</li><li>Total disclosed funding reached at least $16 million across these rounds.</li></ul>

Sacra estimates that The Free Press hit $20M in annualized revenue in September 2025, up 48% year-over-year from $13.8M in September 2024 and up from $16M at the end of 2024.Paramount Skydance acquired The Free Press in October 2025 for a reported $150 million.Total disclosed funding reached at least $16 million across these rounds.

<ul><li>The Free Press became the platform’s top earner before being acquired by Paramount-Skydance for $150M (7.5x revenue) to install Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief.</li><li>Becoming the #1 Substack by revenue on the strength of articles about NPR being leftwing (4,765 likes), a negative review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s new book (2,325 likes), and a positive review of Trump’s anti-gender-affirming care EO (2,099 likes), Sacra estimates The Free Press hit $20M in annualized revenue in September 2025 with 170K paid subscribers, up 48% year-over-year and up from $16.3M at the end of 2024, now acquired by Paramount Skydance for $150M (7.5x revenue) in a deal that installs founder Bari Weiss as Editor-in-Chief of CBS News.</li><li>While The Free Press’s acquisition burnishes Substack’s brand halo and cultural status as a luxury publisher, it exposes the clash between 1) Substack’s strategy of paying prestige writers via Substack Pro (which led to $5.2M in negative revenue for 2021) to quit their jobs and start newsletters, and 2) Substack’s business model of taking 10% of GMV, which at scale, incentivizes those same writers to migrate to Beehiiv or Kit—or use their Substack-earned credibility to return to their legacy jobs with leverage.</li></ul>

The Free Press became the platform’s top earner before being acquired by Paramount-Skydance for $150M (7.5x revenue) to install Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief.Becoming the #1 Substack by revenue on the strength of articles about NPR being leftwing (4,765 likes), a negative review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s new book (2,325 likes), and a positive review of Trump’s anti-gender-affirming care EO (2,099 likes), Sacra estimates The Free Press hit $20M in annualized revenue in September 2025 with 170K paid subscribers, up 48% year-over-year and up from $16.3M at the end of 2024, now acquired by Paramount Skydance for $150M (7.5x revenue) in a deal that installs founder Bari Weiss as Editor-in-Chief of CBS News.While The Free Press’s acquisition burnishes Substack’s brand halo and cultural status as a luxury publisher, it exposes the clash between 1) Substack’s strategy of paying prestige writers via Substack Pro (which led to $5.2M in negative revenue for 2021) to quit their jobs and start newsletters, and 2) Substack’s business model of taking 10% of GMV, which at scale, incentivizes those same writers to migrate to Beehiiv or Kit—or use their Substack-earned credibility to return to their legacy jobs with leverage.

United States

Independent media company publishing investigative stories and provocative commentary about current events and culture

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The Free Press (PRESS US)

Primer: The Free Press - 19 Apr 2026

Independent media company publishing investigative stories and provocative commentary about current events and culture

Sacra

The Free Press At $20M/year

TL;DR: Founded by ex-NYT journalist Bari Weiss as an anti-woke Substack for “disaffected centrists,” The Free Press became the platform’s top...

Sacra

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