Facebook Co-Founder Gives Up on New Republic

Big news in the media world today, by way of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes' announcement that he's seeking a buyer for the New Republic. He bought a majority stake in the magazine in 2012 and a much-publicized staff exodus hit in 2014.

• The announcement itself: Hughes posted it to Medium, and he addresses the 2014 schism. "Our disagreement didn't help our ability to make The New Republic viable today, but it also did not spell our demise. ... Even though our search for a workable business model has come up short, we have shown that digital journalism isn't at odds with quality and depth." In full here.

• The numbers: Hughes writes he sank $20 million into it (independent of the purchase itself). As for traffic losses, the Wall Street Journal reports via comScore that November 2015 traffic was down 38% year-over-year, to 2.3 million unique visitors.
• What's next: The Atlantic highlights one idea.
• "Good!" So proclaims Erik Wemple at the Washington Post. "It would have been understandable if Hughes had lost his nerve after a couple of decades. But this guy lost his nerve after a couple of years."
• The Twitterati: Sample tweet: "This is the Silicon Valley version of the Saudi oil prince who crashes a Lamborghini in the desert and walks away."

(More Chris Hughes stories.)