Top Editors Quit The New Republic

I Quit: Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, walks with Elie Wiesel.

By JTA December 5, 2014

Franklin Foer, the editor in chief of The New Republic, and Leon Wieseltier, the magazine’s longtime literary editor, have resigned over disagreements with the publisher and new CEO.

Foer told his colleagues in a memo Thursday that he was departing because Chris Hughes, The New Republic’s publisher and owner, and Guy Vidra, the CEO, have substantially different visions for the future of the publication, The New York Times reported. Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook and hired Foer after he bought the magazine in 2012.

The departures of Foer and Wieseltier were announced in a subsequent statement on Thursday issued by Vidra, the former general manager of Yahoo! News who was hired by Hughes in September.

Foer will be replaced by Gabriel Snyder, who has worked for Bloomberg Media, The Wire and Gawker, The New York Times reported.

Foer and Wieseltier are both Jewish. Foer is the older brother of novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. Wieseltier had been the literary editor of The New Republic since 1983.

The magazine has a history of Jewish editors and frequently covers Jewish topics and developments in Israel. Its past Jewish editors include Peter Beinart, Hendrik Hertzberg and Martin Peretz.

In July, the magazine published an in-depth story detailing how the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks fell apart.

Vidra’s statement also noted that The New Republic will move to an office in New York from its current location in Washington.

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