Friday, March 9, 2012

New Republic gets an owner steeped in new media

The newest owner of The New Republic magazine is Chris Hughes, a 28-year-old new-media guru who co-founded Facebook and helped to run the online organizing machine for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Hughes’s purchase of a majority stake in the magazine was announced on Friday, once again remaking the masthead of the nearly century-old magazine that helped define modern American liberalism.
He says his focus will be on distributing the magazine’s long-form journalism through tablet computers like the iPad. Though he does not intend to end the printed publication, “five to 10 years from now, if not sooner, the vast majority of The New Republic readers are likely to be reading it on a tablet,” he said.
Hughes will become publisher and the editor in chief of the magazine, and Richard Just will remain the editor. Martin Peretz, who was editor in chief from 1975 until 2010, when his title was changed to editor in chief emeritus, will become a member of the magazine’s advisory board.
The terms of the sale were not disclosed.

No comments:

Blog Archive