NR's New Angel

Several years ago, a young friend and fellow liberal approached Gilbert Harrison, longtime editor-owner of the New Republic. "Gil," he said, "if you're ever thinking about the future of the magazine, I'm interested." Last week, after guiding NR through one-third of its intellectually rich and financially lean six decades, Harrison returned the friend's interest by placing NR's future in his hands. The new owner and editorial chairman: Harvard Social Scientist Martin Peretz, 34, advocate of leftish causes and angel of liberal Democratic candidates (Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern).

The independently wealthy Peretz, whose wife Anne has Singer Co. holdings, becomes NR's third owner since its founding in 1914. Since that time, NR has built an enviable reputation among U.S. intellectuals for its scholarly dissent and literate insights. Though its readership is solid (circ. 100,000) as well as influential, NR faces mounting postal and publishing costs. Recently the weekly has run at a small profit, which is unusual for opinion journals. But red ink is always a threat, and Harrison, 58, figured that it was time for a younger angel with a muscular bankroll.

Harrison is to stay on as editor for at least three years, but Peretz does not plan to be an absentee owner. He thinks that NR must toughen its liberalism with more aggressive, sharply argued opinions on issues now being exploited by conservatives--the Nixon Administration's defense and arms-limitation policies, Henry Kissinger's detente maneuvers with Peking and Moscow. Says Peretz: "There is a conservative offensive in this country, and we don't know how to respond to it."

Peretz's views and relative youth should mesh well with NR's energetic staff. Executive Editor Walter Pincus, 41, has recently probed the Watergate tapes mystery with telling perception.

NR's veterans--Film Critic Stanley Kauffmann, White House Reporter John Osborne and the salty TRB Contributor Richard Strout of the Christian Science Monitor--help sustain the magazine's flair for bright commentary. For the purchase price of $380,000 (plus a somewhat larger amount in pending taxes), Peretz has also acquired a special responsibility: to maintain the unusual character that the New Republic has acquired in American journalism since earlier writers like Walter Lippmann, Bruce Bliven and Edmund Wilson began burnishing its pages.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.