NEW YORK — (CNN) Chris Hughes, the Facebook co-founder who bought “The New Republic” in 2012 and precipitated the greatest staff exodus in the magazine’s history, announced Monday that he would be selling the company.
Hughes, 32, said it was “time for new leadership and vision.”
“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,” Hughes wrote in an email to staff.
“After investing a great deal of time, energy, and over $20 million, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for new leadership and vision at The New Republic,” he wrote. “Although I do not have the silver bullet, a new owner should have the vision and commitment to carry on the traditions that make this place unique and give it a new mandate for a new century.”
In addition to his failed attempt to usher The New Republic into the digital age, Hughes will be remembered for pushing out the magazine’s widely respected editor-in-chief Franklin Foer and longtime literary editor Leon Wieseltier.
Foer resigned in December 2014 after discovering that Hughes and his chief executive Guy Vidra had secretly hired a replacement editor — Gabriel Snyder, of Bloomberg Media — without his knowledge. Wieseltier, who had always chafed at Hughes and Vidra’s efforts to rebrand the magazine as a digital media company, followed suit. Days later, the majority of The New Republic’s masthead resigned en masse.
The abrupt change brought fierce condemnation from politicians and journalists in Washington.
Despite the humiliation brought on by this move, Hughes continued to defend his efforts.
“I didn’t buy the New Republic to be the conservator of a small print magazine whose long-term influence and survival were at risk,” Hughes wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post following the staff exodus. “I came to protect the future of the New Republic by creating a sustainable business so that our journalism, values and voice — the things that make us singular — could survive.”
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