The New Republic’s editor-in-chief, Gabriel Snyder, plans to leave the magazine after it publishes its June edition, CNN Money reported Thursday.
Snyder took over the position in 2014, after a mass staff exodus in which more than 30 editors resigned after Franklin Foer was deposed as editor-in-chief. In a memo obtained by CNN, he told his staff that he was “proud” of the work they accomplished in the past 17 months.
“We built an editorial team composed of new voices reflective of the breadth of American experience. You have announced a new generation, committed to the highest standards of journalism,” he reportedly said in the memo. “We demonstrated how digital fluency can amplify our best literary traditions rather than compete with them. We participated in and shaped discussions of vital issues during a crucial election year. Mostly, though, we published some damn fine work, sometimes under difficult circumstances. Every single day, your indomitable talent and work ethic has humbled me.”
The magazine’s June edition will be that last one Snyder oversees, CNN reported.
Snyder’s departure comes after yet another shakeup at The New Republic: a year after the big staff exodus, Facebook mogul Chris Hughes put the magazine up for sale. He then sold the publication to Win McCormack, a liberal activist and publisher of Tin House magazine.
I don’t know what to do with TNR anymore. Maybe McCormick will make a difference and make it relevant again. Although I find Jeet Heer’s writings very interesting, I find myself reading The Atlantic more and more the past few years.
17 whole months? Damn, that’s loyalty and fortitude!
And what the fuck does, “We demonstrated how digital fluency can amplify our best literary traditions rather than compete with them” mean?
Got a subscription to TNR for my bar mitzvah 55 years ago from my socialist aunt. Kept up my subscription off and on for maybe 1/3 of those years. Haven’t actually paid, but they’ve kept me as a subscriber since Hughes bought it. While there’s a couple of good writers, its gone through at least three complete redesigns. I can’t make any sense of it. Though I look a couple of times a week at the site, I very rarely read more than an article. They had great insightful writers, even during Peretz’s worst anti-Obama days, people like Chait and Judis. They had some excellent female writers as well: Eve Fairbanks and Michelle Cottle among others. TNR was best when it was provocative and clearly but not stereotypically left. I just can’t for the life of me figure out what TNR is about any more. Too bad.
I think you will find that Win McCormack will be a worthy custodian of the New Republic’s historic legacy. I covered Oregon politics for nearly 40 years and this guy has been a major behind-the-scenes player. He is also an agile adapter to the changing media environment. I’m resubscribing after giving the magazine up a decade ago.
He’s not very good at business-gibberish – he completely forgot to include “shifting the accepted paradigm,” “redefining economies of scale,” and “molding the zeitgeist.”