Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

The New Republic Gasps for Relevancy

Drowned out by new media.

As goes Joe, so goes the New Republic. When I read this earlier today,
the inevitability of it seemed to be lost on everyone associated with TNR. Not
that I\’m happy about anyone in the political biz losing steam or their jobs,
but I mean really. No one has been more obtuse about the modern progressive
movement than Mr. Peretz & Co.

Franklin Foer, who was named editor of the magazine a year ago, said that he has been spending much of his tenure mulling “how to revise the magazine’s identity for the age of the blog,” and now plans to reinvigorate the publication and its Web site with a deeper commitment from Mr. Asper. His goal, Mr. Foer said, is for the magazine to “transcend ideology” and to become what he calls The New Yorker of politics. “There’s a massive vacuum in political journalism when it comes to magazines writing about politics, the culture of Washington and presidential politics,” he said. Starting March 19, the magazine will publish fortnightly and will double in size to about 80 pages from the current 40, Mr. Foer said. It will be printed on heavier paper stock, and will be redesigned to include more original photographs, cartoons and other graphic elements. “It’s hard to be less visual than we are now,” Mr. Foer said. The New Republic’s circulation, which was about 101,000 in 2000, has slipped to slightly more than 60,000 now. Mr. Foer attributed the decline in part to an intentional culling of subscriptions sold at reduced rates, a move that has helped save costs. Since then, he said, with the help of “buzzy” articles, “we’ve been growing at a slow but steady clip,” and circulation last year within Washington grew by 30 percent. “We’re within striking distance of being profitable,” he said. … New Republic to Cut Back Publication Schedule

Now the goal is to become The New Yorker of politics? Good luck with that one. Wow, they haven\’t learned a thing, have they.

Peretz goes on to say something in the article that had me laughing out loud.

Mr. Peretz, 67, has himself become a blogger. He said he was “not enjoying it exactly,” but that he had found it addictive. “When I used to see something irritating, I would typically call a friend,” he said. “Now I just go to the blog.” He said he is often surprised at how quickly readers will post a response. “It’s as if they’re waiting for something,” he said. “Then they say, ‘Ah, here he is. I’m going to pounce.’ “

Why am I not surprised that Marty isn\’t \”enjoying it exactly,\” meaning
being a blogger. The last thing these old media types want is immediate push
back from readers, whom they consider inconvenient rabble. That is until 54%
of their subscription base fled to the web and the progressive blogs, which
are beating the old media types on every story that\’s relevant and matters,
starting with the Iraq war.

Joe\’s hinting at becoming a Republican.

TNR is changing it\’s very business model to try and compete and stay relevant.

Once again, Joe and TNR are finding themselves left in the dust by progressives,
as well as the majority of the American public, Democrats and Republicans,
who long ago left the Iraq war and the bad judgment of the TNR crew, wanting something that resembles sanity in a
Bush & Joe world gone mad.

It\’s now a game of follow the leaders and those people would be us.

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