One dollar! One dollar! Do I hear a bid for a dollar to buy the New Republic magazine? For the price it cost to buy Newsweek you can also own the New Republic as your personal liberal magazine toy. Ah! I see a bid out there but, sorry Stephen Glass, that fake play money you are waving is not acceptable. I see serial fabulist Scott Thomas Beauchamp is making a bid which we also can't accept because we already know he is lying.
Yes, the New Republic is now being put up for sale by comedy of errors owner Chris Hughes so, just like Newsweek, you might be able to pick it up for a mere buck. CNN Money today reports on the sale by the most absurd editor/owner of a magazine since former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham decided it was a great business plan to purposely chop circulation in half.
Chris Hughes, the Facebook co-founder who bought "The New Republic" in 2012 and precipitated the greatest staff exodus in the magazine's history, announced Monday that he would be selling the company.
Hughes, 32, said it was "time for new leadership and vision."
"I will be the first to admit that when I took on this challenge nearly four years ago, I underestimated the difficulty of transitioning an old and traditional institution into a digital media company in today's quickly evolving climate," Hughes wrote in an email to staff.
"After investing a great deal of time, energy, and over $20 million, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for new leadership and vision at The New Republic," he wrote. "Although I do not have the silver bullet, a new owner should have the vision and commitment to carry on the traditions that make this place unique and give it a new mandate for a new century."
Look at the bright side, Chris. You might be losing a multi-million dollar magazine but you will probably be gaining a whole buck when it is finally sold.
Hughes failed attempt to usher The New Republic into the digital age is especially notable given how hard he had advocated for turning the magazine into a "digital media company," despite the protests of his editorial staff. In the last year, traffic to the site has declined by nearly 40 percent, according to comScore.
But more than anything, Hughes will be remembered for the damage he did to a magazine long cherished by progressives and, at one point, so influential among politicians that it had branded itself as "the in-flight magazine of Air Force One."
Hughes, who amassed a fortune at Facebook (he was roommates with Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard), had become deeply involved in progressive causes during his 20s. He played a lead role in Barack Obama's online strategy in 2008, and went on to advocate for marriage equality along with his now-husband Sean Eldridge.
It should be noted that his attempt to buy a congressional seat toy for his, uh, hubby also failed.
By 2014, Hughes had grown impatient with the pace of the magazine -- and what he saw as nostalgia for the days of print -- and was eager to turn The New Republic into what he described as a "vertically integrated digital media company." In September, he stepped down as editor-in-chief and appointed Guy Vidra, formerly general manager of Yahoo News, to take his place.
"Vertically integrated digital media company" is code for "Don't know what the hell I'm talking about."
Vidra's disregard for the magazine's traditions and his penchant for Silicon Valley-speak immediately rubbed editorial staff the wrong way. In December of that year, Foer discovered that Hughes and Vidra had secretly hired a replacement editor without his knowledge and were planning to move the magazine's headquarters to New York.
Foer resigned. Leon Wieseltier, the veteran literary editor who had chafed at Hughes' efforts to rebrand the magazine, followed suit. Days later, the majority of The New Republic's masthead resigned en masse. In the days that followed, Hughes would receive widespread condemnation from politicians and journalists in Washington, many of whom pledged to cancel their subscriptions to the magazine.
Of course, no condemnation by them of liberal bias in the New Republic.
