Friday, February 23, 2007

The Canadian media giant CanWest has taken a majority stake in the 92-year-old New Republic, and plans to relaunch the weekly as a thicker, glossier – and half as frequent – magazine with a more robust Web site.

The new ownership and redesign completes a period of change at the magazine, which shifted markedly to the political left under its new editor, Franklin Foer, and has sought to shake off its association with the Bush administration’s pursuit of the Iraq war. CanWest, which publishes a dozen Canadian daily newspapers and owns other media properties around the world, is controlled by the family of CEO Leonard Asper.

"I'm hoping the new magazine will look and feel a lot more like a magazine," Foer said, adding that its goal is "to be the New Yorker of politics and to exude that sense of quality in literary terms, and also in reported terms.'

New York money managers Roger Hertog and Michael Steinhardt bought their stake in the New Republic from Martin Peretz, who remains editor-in-chief. (Peretz referred a call on the latest ownership change to Foer.) CanWest bought a minority stake in the company in 2006.