The New Republic gets even newer.
Win Mccormack, a liberal activist and publisher from Oregon, has bought The New Republic, the magazine announced today. Chris Hughes, the Facebook co-founder who bought the title in 2012, abruptly announced his plan to sell The New Republic in January—just a little over a year after his attempt to reimagine the left-leaning magazine of ideas as “a vertically integrated digital media company” resulted in a tumultuous mass exodus.
“The New Republic was founded in 1914 as the organ of a modernized liberalism and then-dominant Progressive Movement, and has remained true to its founding principles, under all its multiple owners, ever since,” Mr. McCormack said in an announcement. “We intend to continue in that same tradition, preserving the journal as an important voice in a new debate over how the basic principles of liberalism can be reworked to meet the equally demanding challenges of our era.”
Mr. McCormack, who is currently the editor in chief of Tin House, the Portland-based literary quarterly that he co-founded, has named Hamilton Fish, a former publisher of The Nation and current publisher of The Washington Spectator, as the publisher and editorial director of The New Republic.
“When I announced my intention to sell The New Republic last month, my goal was to find the right steward to ensure that TNR continues to be impactful and relevant,” Mr. Hughes said in the statement. “I had many conversations with qualified candidates, and of those I ultimately concluded that Win McCormack and Ham Fish are those stewards. Their backgrounds in journalism and progressive politics make them uniquely qualified to lead such a historic institution.”
