Win McCormack

Win McCormack (Winthrop Laflin McCormack) is an American banking heir, political activist, publisher, and editor from Oregon.

He is editor-in-chief of Tin House¹ magazine and Tin House Books, the former publisher of Oregon Magazine, founder and treasurer of MediAmerica, Inc., and a co-founder of Mother Jones magazine. He serves on the board of directors of the journal New Perspectives Quarterly.² His political and social writings have appeared in Oregon Humanities, Tin House, The Nation,³ The Oregonian, and Oregon Magazine. McCormack's investigative coverage of the Rajneeshee movement was awarded a William Allen White Commendation from the University of Kansas and the City and Regional Magazine Association.

As a political activist, McCormack served as Chair of the Oregon Steering Committee for Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign. He was chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon's President's Council and a member of the Obama for President Oregon Finance Committee. Additionally, McCormack sits on the Board of Overseers for Emerson College,⁴ and is a co-founder of the Los Angeles–based Liberty Hill Foundation.⁵

In February 2016, McCormack purchased The New Republic magazine from Chris Hughes.⁶⁷⁸

McCormack is the son of attorney Alfred McCormack and Winifred Byron Smith McCormack.⁹

Reed Magazine reports that, after his mother’s death, he inherited money that helped him acquire Oregon Times magazine.¹⁰ He has been described as “an heir to a midwestern banking fortune.”¹¹ On his mother’s side, a published genealogy identifies Winifred Byron Smith as the child of Walter Byron Smith.¹² A contemporary profile of Walter Byron Smith states that he was the second son of Byron Laflin Smith, who founded The Northern Trust Company in 1889.¹³¹⁴

He received an A.B. from Harvard College and an MFA from the University of Oregon.¹⁵

• 2008 You Don't Know Me: A Citizen's Guide to Republican Family Values. Portland, Oregon: Tin House Books. ISBN 978-1-135-89772-7.
• 2010 The Rajneesh Chronicles. Portland, Oregon: Tin House Books. ISBN 978-0-9825691-9-1.