Jonathan Cohn, one of the former editors of The New Republic who recently resigned in protest from the publication but who is now headed (with two others) to the Huffington Post, is confident the career move is right for him.
Even if HuffPost epitomizes a large reason he and others left TNR en masse back in December.
“HuffPost … has a clear sense of purpose — a commitment to producing journalism that has a real impact,” Cohn told the Washington Examiner media desk Monday. “Plus, they’re pouring new resources into long-form writing, as the hiring of [my former TNR colleagues] Rachel Morris and Greg Veis shows.”
One of the biggest factors that resulted in Cohn and scores of his coworkers leaving TNR was supposed pressure from the owner — Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes — for staff to write quicker, more web-friendly items, otherwise known as “clickbait.”
HuffPost, however, built an unashamed reputation as a clickbait-friendly website. It has a large team of serious news reporters but it also has a whole section of its website dedicated to celebrity “side boob” incidents.
So, what about HuffPost appealed to Cohn?
He said he didn’t want to “rehash” his departure from TNR, but said, “For me, it’s always a question of how you go about [change] and what the publication’s ultimate goals are.” He said TNR was “sacrificing too much of its historic identity and purpose” as it evolved from focusing on its print magazine to becoming a more digital publication.
“I stayed at TNR for 17 years because I felt like it was committed to the kind of journalism I valued,” Cohn said. “I feel the same way about HuffPost today.”
