The death of "The New Republic" -- a journalistic tragedy

These are not good times for print journalism, especially the kind that results in serious, in-depth reporting and essays about important subjects.    The New Republic was one of the few remaining that I respected and often quoted.    It just celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Through the years, TNR has had its shifts, sometimes taking a more liberal stance, sometimes -- with a change of owners or editors -- shifting more rightward.    In fact, I once cancelled my long-held subscription because the owner-publisher, Martin Perez, had become such a knee-jerk apologist for the Israel right-wing that I resigned in protest to the lack of moderation.   It wasn't just the political position;   Marty would scathingly denounce in a signed editorial anyone who dared to disagree with him -- either on his staff of writers, or a public figure.   He became so extreme that I began to wonder about his hold on reality.

However, two years ago Perez sold his interest, and Chris Hughes, a bright young Harvard graduate from the tech world bought it, vowing to restore it to its glory days by doubling down on "long-form quality journalism.   He backed that up by re-hiring a former respected editor, Franklin Foer, and an equally impressive staff of writers and editors.

I re-subscribed, and in truth they have put out two years of increasingly important journalism -- until now, just on the heels of the 100th birthday celebration.

Although Chris Hughes was Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard roommate and became a co-founder of FaceBook, he was apparently something of an intellectual with literary interests as well as internet technology.   He was known to read Balzac in the original French. 

Alas, although he was certainly capable of understanding serious journalism and had brought in (in some case, brought back) very good writers and editors, apparently he was not a businessman, nor long on patience.   Even though  readership was close to doubling in a such a short time, he wanted to go high-tech.

He hired a new CEO and put him in charge of the whole operation with power to change the direction.    This new CEO is Guy Vidra, who replaced the editor with someone who had previously worked for the gossip website Gawker and whose stated purpose is "re-imagining TNR as a vertically integrated digital media company."

Now virtually the entire staff of writers and editors have resigned en masse (more than 30 of them), some even asking that their articles slated for publication be withdrawn.    Publication of the magazine has been cancelled for two months.

So modern technology made Chris Hughes super-rich;  he bought himself a venerable journal of opinion and vowed to continue the tradition.    But then he got impatient and decided to go the other direction -- fast.    Now The New Republic, as we knew it, is dead.   Whatever Hughes and Vidra may come up with, it will not be anything recognizable as TNR.

An intellectual literary icon has just died -- it was killed by the man who had vowed to save it.

Ralph

 PS:   When asked whether he had ever expected to make a profit, long-time majority-share own Martin Perez laughed and said "never."    It used to be that people of means were willing to lose money in the good cause of good journalism.   That doesn't seem to be the case anymore.