I was just slagging TNR for praising sleazy discredited lunatic Alfred Kinsey (and Julia Child and Al Gore…) as one of its “100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century.”)
(And remember the shameful Andrew Sullivan/Stephen Glass era? The one that overlapped the Clinton administration, when The New Republic was nicknamed “the in-flight magazine of Air Force One” — and when the average age of its writers was 26, with predictable results?)
Well, I noticed a lot of “New Republic” chatter on Twitter yesterday.
Looks like there’s a shakeup afoot at one of America’s oldest magazines:
The New Republic’s executives announced Thursday a massive overhaul that will result in the magazine reducing its physical output to just ten issues a year, one of many major changes to the 100-year-old magazine, which is also losing its top editors. And the magazine, long a mainstay of Washington’s journalism world, is moving its center of gravity to New York.
Franklin Foer, who edited the New Republic from 2006 and 2010, and returned in 2012 after its purchase by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, announced his resignation today. Also departing is longtime literary editor Leon Wieseltier, and reportedly other writers and editors further down the masthead. Gabriel Snyder, a veteran of Atlantic Media and Gawker, will take over as editor.
Among other things, the magazine is cutting back to 10 issues a year. This is usually the first step to halting print publication altogether.
They might have to redesign their quaint nautical logo while they’re at it; that ship just might be sinking.
Reading between the cringe-making lines — about “branding” and “platforms” and “re-imagining The New Republic as a vertically integrated digital media company” — it sounds like The New Republic, having just celebrated its centenary, is turning itself into Buzzfeed.
The next occupant of the White House had better own a cat.
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