^{Chapman’s News & Ideas} Venerable New Republic Now Less Venerable

I read The New Republic, the venerable liberal journal founded by Progressives a hundred years ago, and even under the new owner management of Chris Hughes, a Facebook billionaire, I find it stimulating. That doesn’t mean that I agree with it, but just that it is less predictable and knee-jerk left-wing than, say, the editorial page of The New York Times. Unfortunately, Chris Hughes, age 30, thinks print is on its way out and that the future of the magazine is digital.

On their way out as a consequence are the editor, Franklin Foer, and senior editorial writer, Leon Wieseltier. The latter has been an icon of TNR for ages.

The literary graveyards, alas, are filling up with publications that died of digitalitis.

UPDATE: The staff resignations continue and are extensive. Why would Chris Hughes buy a magazine with an established and good reputation, destroy the staff (effectively) and turn it into what apparently will be a digital publication? He could have started a digital ‘zine of his own brand for a lot less money and grief. This looks like an historic “publishing” blunder. It shows again that success in one field doesn’t assure success in another. A lot of rich people don’t understand that.