The New Republic, which was purchased in 2012 by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, is for sale. News comes after Hughes sent an office memo to the TNR staff, which he then promptly posted to Medium. In the memo, Hughes calls the magazine the best flagpole of new liberalism, but admits that, when he bought it little more than three years ago, he had no idea what he was in for.
Yet 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.
It’s an odd statement, given the fact that, in 2013, Hughes claimed that TNR‘s web traffic had tripled. This was before a massive staff exodus occurred at the publication when Hughes brought in now-Editor-in-Chief Gabriel Snyder. His approach to improving TNR can be summed up by the word “online,” a seemingly safe bet even for a publication that has existed in physical form since 1914.
There are rumors that Hughes has already begun searching for a buyer, but Twitter, as always, has the best suggestion: