Employees have debated several scenarios, including a merger or some staff being transferred to the Washington Examiner or even a possible sale, as has been publicly floated by William Kristol, who founded the magazine in 1995. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Media ‘Something bad is going to happen on Friday’: Weekly Standard staffers brace for end Employees at the conservative journal plan to gather for an all-hands meeting at the end of the week.

Staffers at the Weekly Standard have been told to gather for an all-hands meeting Friday — and they're bracing for bad news about the conservative magazine's future, according to four people familiar with the plans.

The Weekly Standard’s publisher, MediaDC, has not sent out an official memo announcing the gathering, nor has editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes. But word has circulated among the staff, including from some managers, that they should be prepared to convene, the people familiar with the meeting said.


These people said executives from MediaDC and its parent company, Clarity Media Group, have not shared any updates with staff since the magazine's owner said last week it was "exploring a number of possibilities" for the journal, which has stood out from its conservative peers by opposing President Donald Trump and his style of politics. The billionaire conservative donor Philip Anschutz, who owns Clarity Media, has also remained silent, leaving his employees without any sense of what might happen to their jobs.

“The assumption that everyone has is that something bad is going to happen on Friday," one Weekly Standard writer said.

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Hayes did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for Clarity Media. CNN reported last week that there could be decisive meetings about the magazine at the end of this week.

Clarity Media has already said the Weekly Standard's sister publication, The Washington Examiner, which has featured a broader range of opinions on Trump, will expand its footprint with a weekly conservative magazine with national distribution — a move that seems to overlap with the Weekly Standard’s model.

Weekly Standard employees have debated several scenarios, including a merger or some staff being transferred to the Washington Examiner or even a possible sale, as has been publicly floated by William Kristol, who founded the magazine in 1995.

That seems unlikely, however. If Anschutz sold the Weekly Standard, it would create a competitor for his expanded Examiner. Also, the subscription list for the magazine could be valuable in seeking out customers for the Examiner’s national publication.

"Everyone is resigned to it probably being the worst-case scenario," said another employee.

Top editorial leaders already have discussed a possible successor publication of some sort, according to two people familiar the talks. One option could be to expand a small conservative site called the Bulwark, which is published by the Defending Democracy Together Institute, a nonprofit that Kristol is involved with. He and Weekly Standard contributing editor Charlie Sykes already sit on the editorial board of the site, which currently lists just two editorial employees.

Kristol has publicly said he intends to keep the Standard — or at least its ethos — going, telling The New York Times, “We’re absolutely committed to keeping the voice of The Weekly Standard alive in its current form with its current ownership, or under different auspices, or maybe in a somewhat different way.”

The last week has been a difficult one for staff, who — in many cases, on top of searching for a new job — have still been pushing out content and working to finish the latest issue of the magazine, which is set to go to print on Thursday.

“Everybody seems to be talking like we’re not going to have a job, like this is the last issue, the one we’re working," a third staff member said. “People are pretty upset.”

“There’s a lot of gallows humor," another person said, "and discussion of where we’re going to drink Friday evening.”

Michael Calderone contributed to this report.

