The future of the conservative magazine the Weekly Standard is at risk as the magazine’s ownership, MediaDC, is reportedly refocusing its attention on its other main publication, the Washington Examiner. And the Daily Caller is reporting that the magazine could be shut down as soon as December 14, though the company that owns MediaDC (and thus TWS) told CNN that it is continuing to explore possibilities and “does not have any news to share” at this point.
As one source told me, “This is not about dwindling subscribers. This is about strip-mining TWS for its assets” — namely, the magazine’s subscriber lists.
At the heart of the troubles is the Weekly Standard’s turn against Trumpism, which has proven a losing bet in a conservative movement that has increasingly embraced the president. MediaDC reportedly wants to jettison the anti-Trump brand of the Weekly Standard but use its subscribers to bolster the more pro-Trump — or at least Trump-agnostic — Examiner.
Founded in 1995 by Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Weekly Standard is best known as a publication aimed at “neoconservatives,” a branch of conservatism stemming from, in part, former liberals who were disappointed with the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and backed a hawkish foreign policy that centers on interventionism (“Having defeated and then occupied Iraq, democratizing the country should not be too tall an order for the world’s sole superpower” wrote Kristol in 2003).
But more recently, the Standard — and, in particular, Kristol himself — have proven consistent, strident critics of President Donald Trump, and many blame the magazine’s problems on its “Never Trump” stance — it wouldn’t be the first time a conservative media company made cuts to align its brand closer to the president. – READ MORE