Facebook co-founder puts The New Republic up for sale

Just over a year after he fired the top editor — which triggered a mass staff resignation — Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes said Monday he is tossing in the towel on The New Republic and putting the 101-year-old publication up for sale.

Hughes admitted he “underestimated” the difficulty of making the drastic changes to TNR that are needed to turn the publication around.

“I underestimated the difficulty of transitioning an old and traditional institution into a digital media company in today’s quickly evolving climate,” he wrote in an email to staff Monday morning.

There are no current talks with any potential buyer, Hughes said in the email. However, “over the coming weeks, I’ll pursue conversations with those interested in taking on the mantle and supporting the next era of this institution,” he said in the email.

In December 2014, efforts by Hughes to transform the publication forced editor Frank Foer to resign in protest.

Foer was replaced by Gabriel Snyder, who had been a consultant to the troubled Bloomberg web overhaul and had earlier worked on a variety of dot-com outlets. By the time Snyder took over, he was forced to replace most of the staff because they quickly followed their editor out the door.

“I have some difficult news today,” Hughes wrote in his email. “I have decided to put The New Republic up for sale.

“I bought this company nearly four years ago to ensure its survival and give it the financial runway to experiment with new business models in a time of immense change in media. After investing a great deal of time, energy and over $20 million, I have come to the conclusion that it is time for new leadership and vision at the New Republic.”

He addressed the turmoil that enveloped the magazine in late 2014 and into 2015 as it cut its annual print frequency from 20 to 10 issues.

While many of Hughes’ moves were aimed at improving TNR’s digital presence, the magazine’s traffic plunged and never recovered. The number of unique visitors as of November was 2.3 million — down 38 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to comScore.

“Our disagreement didn’t help our ability to make the New Republic viable today, but it also did not spell our demise,” Hughes said in the email.

The email and the intended sale of TNR was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.