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Gabriel Snyder, the magazine’s new editor, said the decision to run Jeet Heer’s story, “The New Republic’s Legacy On Race,” on the cover was purely the editorial team’s choice.
“There was never any consultation in advance with either Chris [Hughes] or [CEO] Guy [Vidra] or any publicists. These were decisions that were made by me,” he said. “They do represent values or approaches that I’m seeking to improve on. And so I don’t feel any sort of shame pointing to them as real actions that describe the kind of New Republic I want to edit.”
Heer’s story is no hit piece on departed editor Franklin Foer and his editing team. Heer has long criticized The New Republic’s history of racism under former owner Marty Peretz, as have other commentators—notably Ta-Nehisi Coates. But Heer’s cover story, arriving at this precarious moment, no doubt serves the interests of a magazine looking to position its evolution as a positive step forwards. Heer has protested on Twitter that racist incidents in the magazine’s history are a separate problem from the recent turmoil among its staff. Yet it seems a stretch to suggest that the choice to address those issues on the front page of the first magazine under a new editor is irrelevant.
“I think the racial reckoning had to happen, but the turmoil created the opportunity for it, and also made it necessary. In the face of what Coates had written any serious magazine had to publish some sort of response,” Heer said. “It’s such a big elephant in the room.”
The New Republic relaunch features... The New Republic Columbia Journalism Review
Watching them remake themselves might be rather interesting.
“There was never any consultation in advance with either Chris [Hughes] or [CEO] Guy [Vidra] or any publicists. These were decisions that were made by me,” he said. “They do represent values or approaches that I’m seeking to improve on. And so I don’t feel any sort of shame pointing to them as real actions that describe the kind of New Republic I want to edit.”
Heer’s story is no hit piece on departed editor Franklin Foer and his editing team. Heer has long criticized The New Republic’s history of racism under former owner Marty Peretz, as have other commentators—notably Ta-Nehisi Coates. But Heer’s cover story, arriving at this precarious moment, no doubt serves the interests of a magazine looking to position its evolution as a positive step forwards. Heer has protested on Twitter that racist incidents in the magazine’s history are a separate problem from the recent turmoil among its staff. Yet it seems a stretch to suggest that the choice to address those issues on the front page of the first magazine under a new editor is irrelevant.
“I think the racial reckoning had to happen, but the turmoil created the opportunity for it, and also made it necessary. In the face of what Coates had written any serious magazine had to publish some sort of response,” Heer said. “It’s such a big elephant in the room.”
The New Republic relaunch features... The New Republic Columbia Journalism Review
Watching them remake themselves might be rather interesting.
