The Weekly Standard is not expected to survive going into 2019 and is preparing to shut down permanently, according to a current staff member and former member of the magazine’s parent company who spoke to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Rumors had been circulating throughout the media class Tuesday about the fate of The Weekly Standard in the wake of the magazine’s dwindling readership and circulation, despite a rebranding effort as the preeminent right-leaning periodical for conservatives opposed to President Donald Trump.
“I don’t expect it to exist after December 14, 2018,” one editor at the magazine told TheDCNF. “There is no budget for it AT ALL.”
News broke Tuesday afternoon from CNN that the magazine’s editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes addressed staff about the magazine’s troubles, but did not go into detail about what the future might hold. (RELATED: Bill Kristol Considering Run For President In 2020)
“Supposedly Steve Hayes doesn’t even know [beyond what CNN reported],” the staffer said.
The Weekly Standard was founded in 1995 by Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes. Originally owned by NewsCorp, the magazine was eventually sold in 2009 to billionaire Philip Anschutz. Individuals close to the magazine told TheDCNF that Anschutz was growing frustrated with the direction of the magazine.
A former employee of The Washington Examiner, which is a member of the same parent company as The Weekly Standard, told TheDCNF the office had been hearing murmurings Monday about the magazine’s fate. That employee told TheDCNF there had been talk that some of The Weekly Standard would be folded into The Washington Examiner.
“They’re either closing or they’re folding into a page of the Washington Examiner,” said the former Examiner employee.
Yet a current editor at The Weekly Standard disputed that possibility.
“I don’t think ‘folded’ is the right word. It sounds more like get rid of us entirely,” the editor said.
A spokesperson for Anschutz did not comment.
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