Revolt at "New Republic" When Silicon Valley Wonk Buys and Retools It

www.nytimes.com...

REVOLT AT THE NEW "NEW REPUBLIC"
"Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard roommate buys the ultimate symbol of the old media ... The staff felt as if they were part of a romantic endeavor - Writers were offered generous salaries and assured that they would be given time and space. The website was redesigned. - Hired as chief executive a former Yahoo official who told the staff that he intended to break stuff (using a profanity) to rebuild the magazine as a “vertically integrated digital media company" ... Drove out the magazine’s widely admired editor and literary editor, replaced with former editor of Gawker."

Revol t at "New Republic" When Silicon Valley Wonk Buys and Retools It

While I applaud "new blood" in the slowly-dying 'news magazine/newspaper' media, you don't slash-and-burn where only a steak knife is needed.

"The moves set off a mass exodus that forced the magazine to cancel the publication of its next issue. It also prompted an angry public letter from a group of New Republic alumni. “As former writers and editors for The New Republic,” it began, “we write to express our dismay and sorrow at its destruction in all but name.”

"The walkout and letter were a protest against Mr. Hughes’ stewardship of the magazine, but in a more general sense they represented a defense of an endangered journalistic ideal that the high-minded, unapologetically wonky New Republic embodied in its purest form. It was the right place and the right time for a last stand."

And new owner Mr. Hughes is decidedly in Team Obama's pocket:

"Mr. Hughes left Facebook in 2007 with an estimated fortune of $700 million to join the Obama campaign, where he created the president’s first Facebook profile and helped run online organizing. He had always been interested in journalism, though; in high school, at Andover, he was news director of The Phillipian."

Mr. Hughes should have done a little less bragging about reading "Honore de Balzac in the original French" and a little more time studying how Amazon's zillionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, bought and handles another well respected "media institution," The Washington Post.

wow, right out of the HBO series "newsroom" season 4....life is stranger than fiction

It's a shame, in depth reporting really is on it's last leg.

So a news outlet is going to swing from being overly right wing to overly left wing? Meh. Not a big deal to me.

a reply to: jimmyx

"wow, right out of the HBO series "newsroom" season 4....life is stranger than fiction ."

Actually, Hollywood's been milking the "socially/emotionally inept Silicon Valley juvenile millionaire" for awhile now. Remember when "Two and a Half Men" hired Ashton Kutcher as geeky dot.com millionaire Walden Schmidt?

twohalfmen.wikia.com...
"WALDEN SCHMIDT" CHARACTER ON 'TWO AND A HALF MEN'

a reply to: Kali74

"It's a shame, in depth reporting really is on it's last leg."

It's not "in depth reporting" I miss, it's the lack of "in depth thinking." Six paragraphs interspersed with Twitter quotes beneath a headline hinting at Really Big Conflict, With Mad People And Everything! isn't my idea of something to waste time reading ...

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Weep not. There's still The Blaze, Newsmax and the Washington Examiner.

While The Hill and the Washington Times have jumped into Team Obama's back pocket too.

a reply to: MKMoniker

Don't worry, I weep for none of these news outlets. At the end of the day it's all s#. It just smells different.

originally posted by: MKMoniker
a reply to: jimmyx

"wow, right out of the HBO series "newsroom" season 4....life is stranger than fiction ."

Actually, Hollywood's been milking the "socially/emotionally inept Silicon Valley juvenile millionaire" for awhile now. Remember when "Two and a Half Men" hired Ashton Kutcher as geeky dot.com millionaire Walden Schmidt?

twohalfmen.wikia.com...
"WALDEN SCHMIDT" CHARACTER ON 'TWO AND A HALF MEN'

yeah...talk about bad casting...geez...one thing though, i'll never go see a movie where Aston Kutcher stars...even Charlie Sheens "anger management" is funnier than "two and a half men"

a reply to: jimmyx

"yeah...talk about bad casting...geez...one thing though, i'll never go see a movie where Ashton Kutcher stars...even Charlie Sheens "anger management" is funnier than "two and a half men"

I loved "Two and a Half Men" the first couple years, it was truly hilarious. But Charlie's endless supply of rotating-sl*** got tiresome, and I bailed on the show before Charlie's real-life meltdown.

I really like Ashton Kutcher and watched his debut on the show. He's got the requisite baby-face and well-meaning childishness, constantly tormented over doing the right thing with all these damaged, neurotic people Charlie left in his wake. But the writing never did the character justice, and it stayed one-dimensional and cartoonish.

But Kutcher's a dot-com millionaire in his own right, and is starting a family. So I doubt he's crying over the loss of "Two and a Half Men."

No doubt Mr. Hughes intends to proactively drill down to shift the paradigm, leverage core competencies, touchpoint the brand and empower sustainable synergies, like any good magazine should.

What could possibly go wrong?

a reply to: Majic

"What could possibly go wrong?"

LOL!

Also, considering Mr. Hughes quite Facebook to join Team Obama, I'd expect a lot of dazzling writing giving this venal Administration a pass at every opportunity.

To tell you the truth I never was too fond of reporter type folks who get all nosy and cause great tragedies like the death of Princess Diana. There is a real need for news though and I highly respect news agencies like Fox News or CNN who don't chase celebrities around with cameras and make up dumb stories and sell manipulated photos, trying to sell it off as "legitimate news reporting". Considering the success and usefulness of Facebook I am interested in seeing what Mr. Hughes does with this "New Republic" (I never heard of them). Also, if the former staff of "New Republic" are that unhappy over the decision maybe they should start a new news agency of their own so that they can continue to work as the team they enjoy being together as. Right? No? Does it matter? In all likelihood, considering the value of Facebook and it's inventors, it was probably the right decision to sack the entire "New Republic" news crew and to start looking for new folks to run the banner.


a reply to: MKMoniker

a reply to: Asynchrony

Hmmm, you do know that there is a difference between an actual investigative journalist and paparazzi? I know that the articles about celebs that nearly fill websites like CNN and Fox kind of blur the whole line a bit but that is not investigative journalism. Celeb articles are generally for those grocery store check out racks and gossip sites. Not news. Well, not until the last few years and well, hey, did you hear about that big protest in Berkeley? No? Was it another story about Kim Kardashian's butt instead?

Yeah, that's not investigative journalism at all.

I just thought of this to clear this up:

NY Times and Watergate Scandal = Investigative journalism

Kim Kardashian on the street shot--paparazzi looking to sell photos to gossip rags.