The resignation of two of The New Republic's top editors last week sparked a massive exodus at the publication. Former employees, including senior editor John Judis, are pointing fingers at owner Chris Hughes for his shift in editorial direction.
Judis spoke to HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski about the reasoning behind his departure from the venerable opinion journal, which includes the manner in which Hughes handled issues with editor Franklin Foer. Foer learned about his replacement -- Gabriel Snyder, formerly of The Atlantic Wire, Gawker and Bloomberg Media -- via Gawker ("that gossip site"), explained Judis.
"That's not a very nice way to treat an editor and somebody who I'd worked with for ... 20 years," Judis said.
There were larger issues at play that further encouraged Judis to walked away from The New Republic, including Hughes and chief executive Guy Vidra putting more emphasis on web traffic than on the publication's 100-year-old tradition of deep reporting and strong argument, Judis explained:
I felt, in this case, Frank's getting fired and Leon's getting forced out was part of an attempt to transform The New Republic and take it a step beyond where it had been before towards a kind of profit-making media center, where its role as a political journal and magazine would become secondary. I was alarmed by this idea that there was going to be a New Republic investment fund, the idea that we're going to be shareholders as if we were Facebook all over again. It sounded to me like Chris Hughes had really abandoned what he had originally promised, which was to preserve the core role of The New Republic.
Watch the video (above) to hear more from John Judis and check out the full segment on the shakeup at The New Republic.
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