NEW YORK -- New Republic Editor-in-Chief Gabriel Snyder will speak at this month's National Press Foundation awards in Washington, D.C., making his first public remarks since taking the helm following a mass staff exodus in December.
Snyder and Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen will each give short talks on the future of journalism at the Feb. 18 dinner.
Sandy K. Johnson, president and chief operating officer of the National Press Foundation, told HuffPost that the organization began discussions about a year ago with The New Republic about becoming one of the sponsors for the annual dinner, which raises money to help fund journalism training throughout the year. BuzzFeed, Re/code and St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editor Gilbert Bailon are among the big award winners this year.
Johnson said they asked New Republic owner Chris Hughes to speak this year, but he will be out of the country. She said they're "very excited" Snyder is able to do it.
Dozens of New Republic staffers and contributing editors left the magazine in December after the resignations of Editor Frank Foer and longtime Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier. The two editors had clashed with Hughes and CEO Guy Vidra, both of whom many departing staffers believed to be more focused on online traffic than the magazine's tradition of deep reporting and criticism.
On Monday, The New Republic published its first post-exodus print issue, which featured a much-discussed cover story examining the magazine's "perceived legacy of racism." Snyder told The New York Times on Sunday that the magazine will be rebuilt around four to six topics of "fixations," such as climate change.