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Could billionaires become the grand patrons who save traditional media from self-destruction? That was the thinking when Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes bought the New Republic, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar started First Look Media. But these grand patrons have found that the media world doesn’t come easy. Hughes, in particular, has faced a firestorm at the New Republic when a change of leadership came in an effort to create a “vertically integrated digital media company.” Dozens of editors resigned late last week, and the New Republic canceled its December issue and announced it will reduce printing to only 10 issues a year. But Hughes isn’t the only wealthy owner whose media company has hit rough patches. There have been some big changes over at First Look Media as well. Pierre Omidyar’s company recently had to shutter its digital magazine Racket and John Cook, editor-in-chief of The Intercept, is leaving to go back to Gawker. What’s next for media patrons with vanity presses? Can they work out a business model without breaking things? We’ll discuss that in detail on this week’s podcast, with special guests David Folkenflik, NPR’s media correspondent, and Dylan Byers, media reporter at Politico. We’ll be joined by our regulars Alex Leo, head of audience development for Yahoo, and Andrew Lih, professor at American University. PBS MediaShift’s Mark Glaser will be hosting and Jefferson Yen will be producing.