The New Republic sold, going biweekly.

From The Politico:

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."

While the magazine would carry longer reported pieces and essays, the Web site will be enhanced with, among other things, videos of writers and editors talking about politics, Foer said. He said the sum of content produced for the magazine and the Web site wouldn't change.

"'Newsmagazine' is an oxymoron today – if it isn't hourly it isn't news," said the New Republic's new interim publisher, Canadian Greg MacNeil. "If it isn't on the Web or on CNN, it isn't news. Trying to be current in a magazine is not possible."

I hope it works. I gave up on TNR about three years ago.