Guy Vidra, general manager of Yahoo News, has been named the first CEO of The New Republic effective Oct. 13.

Chris Hughes, owner of TNR, says he "can't think of a better way to celebrate our centennial than by bringing it a new entrepreneurial future-focused leader."

Vidra's mission is to redefine TNR "for a new time," according to Hughes, who will remain publisher, become executive chairman and relinquish the editor-in-chief position.

At Yahoo, Vidra was responsible for the No. 1 news site with more than 60M unique visitors and 2B page views each month.

He played a key role in the hiring of high-profile journalists such as Katie Couric and David Pogue and developing the Yahoo News Digest mobile app.

Earlier, Vidra was in charge of business development and mobile at the Washington Post.

He also handled busdev at Perfect Market, a venture of the New York Times, Tribune Co. newspapers and The Times of India designed to monetize their respective websites.

Hughes also announced the launch of The New Republic Fund to back early-stage tech start-ups in the digital media, analytics and video sectors.