Huie faced financial difficulties sustaining the "Mercury" in this new direction. In August 1952, he sold it to an occasional financial contributor, Russell Maguire, owner of the Thompson submachine gun Company. Rather than turn over editorial control to Maguire, Huie stepped down as editor after the January 1953 issue. He was replaced by John A. Clements, a former reporter for the "New York Journal" and "Daily Mirror", then director of public relations for the Hearst Corporation. Within a short time, Maguire steered the magazine "toward the fever swamps of antisemitism", as "National Review" publisher William A. Rusher would describe it. The sale to Maguire spelled the end of "The American Mercury" as a mainstream magazine. It survived, steadily declining, for nearly 30 more years.