Franklin Foer and Leon Wieseltier, the top two editors at The New Republic, quit on Thursday amid a shakeup that will relocate the Washington-based magazine to New York City, sources there told POLITICO on Thursday.

Gabriel Snyder, a Bloomberg Media editor who previously served at The Atlantic Wire, has been tapped to replace Foer as editor. The magazine will also reduce its print schedule to 10 issues a year, down from 20.

The news of Foer's departure was first confirmed by Foer, the editor, in a memo to staff in which he cited differences of vision with owner Chris Hughes and chief executive Guy Vidra. Vidra later sent a memo to staff confirming Foer and Wieseltier's departure, as well as the staff reductions and New York relocation.

"As you’ve heard, Frank Foer is leaving the company.  We are excited to announce that Gabriel Snyder will assume the role of Editor-in-Chief. In addition, Leon Wieseltier will be moving on," Vidra wrote in his memo.

"As we restructure The New Republic, we will be making significant investments in creating a more effective and efficient newsroom as well as improved products across all platforms," Vidra wrote. "This will require a recalibration of our resources in order to deliver the best product possible. In order to do so, we’ve made the decision to reduce the frequency of our print publication from 20 to 10 issues a year and will be making improvements to the magazine itself."

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"Given the frequency reduction, we will also be making some changes to staff structure," he continued. "This is not a decision we make lightly, but we believe this restructuring is critical to the long-term success of the company.  We will be holding an all-hands meeting tomorrow to help answer any questions or concerns you may have."

"And lastly — as some of you may know — we will be moving to a newly re-designed, expanded office in New York’s Union Square," he wrote. "New York was the original home of The New Republic, and we’re thrilled to further expand our presence here."

Hughes, a Facebook co-founder, bought The New Republic in 2012 at the age of 28 with ambitions of restoring its esteemed place in Washington media. Instead, TNR failed to hire marquee names, struggled to attract advertisers and failed to gain a prominent place in the conversation.

In more recent months, Hughes has been working on plans to turn the once-venerable liberal magazine into a "digital media company," an ambiguous proposal that left many staffers there uncertain about the future of the publication. In September, he hired Vidra, the former general manager of Yahoo News, to serve as TNR's first-ever chief executive. Since then, Hughes has staked the company's future on Vidra's vision rather than Foer's. In an interview with The New York Times last month, Hughes said he no longer even thinks about TNR as a magazine. “Today, I don’t call it a magazine at all. I think we’re a digital media company.” 

Both Foer and Wieseltier, the magazine's literary editor, chafed at such a vision, sources said. That frustration was also reflected in Foer's memo to staff on Thursday.

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"The New Republic has been one of the great loves of my life–a set of ideas, a history, a collection of people I revere. I grew up here, made my best friends here, and learned so many profound lessons about the world in the process," Foer wrote. "Part of the joy has been the struggle: We’ve fought to preserve an institution that was perpetually imperiled. It’s been hairy at moments, no doubt, but also exhilarating and immense fun. I’ve had an especially wonderful time these past two and half years. We’ve published essays and journalism that have actually, in moments, changed the world, or at least people’s opinions about the world."

"I’ve always had a hard time imagining leaving here," Foer continued. "That moment, however, has arrived. Chris and Guy have significant plans for this place. And their plans and my own vision for TNR meaningfully diverge. I’ve decided this is the right time for me to finish a book that is several years overdue and to work on a few other projects. I will miss everyone here immensely."

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