''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Founded by
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser (June 26, 1929June 26, 2020) was an American graphic designer. His most notable designs include the I Love New York logo, a 1966 poster for Bob Dylan, and the logos for DC Comics, Stony Brook University and Brooklyn Brewery. In 1954 ...
and
Clay Felker
Clay Schuette Felker (October 2, 1925 – July 1, 2008) was an American magazine editor and journalist who co-founded ''New York'' magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing numerous journalists into the profession. ''The New York Times'' wrote ...
in 1968 as a competitor to ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', it was brasher and less polite, and established itself as a cradle of
New Journalism
New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non ...
. Over time, it became more national in scope, publishing many noteworthy articles on American culture by writers such as
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
,
Jimmy Breslin
James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...
,
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award f ...
,
John Heilemann
John Arthur Heilemann (born January 23, 1966) is an American journalist and national affairs analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. With Mark Halperin, he co-authored ''Game Change'' (2010) and '' Double Down'' (2013), books about presidential campaign ...
,
Frank Rich
Frank Hart Rich Jr. (born 1949) is an American essayist and liberal op-ed columnist, who held various positions within ''The New York Times'' from 1980 to 2011. He has also produced television series and documentaries for HBO.
Rich is current ...
, and
Rebecca Traister
Rebecca Traister (born 1975) is an American author and journalist. Traister is a writer-at-large for ''New York'' magazine and its website ''The Cut'', and a contributing editor at ''Elle'' magazine. Traister wrote for ''The New Republic'' from Fe ...
.
In its 21st-century incarnation under editor-in-chief
Adam Moss
Adam Moss is an American magazine and newspaper editor. From 2004 to 2019, he was the editor-in-chief of ''New York'' magazine. Under his editorship, ''New York'' was repeatedly recognized for excellence, notably winning Magazine of the Year in ...
, "The nation's best and most-imitated city magazine is often not about the city—at least not in the overcrowded, traffic-clogged,
five-boroughs sense", wrote then-''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' media critic
Howard Kurtz
Howard Alan Kurtz (; born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author best known for his coverage of the media.
Kurtz is the host of Fox News's ''Media Buzz'' program, the successor to ''Fox News Watch''. He is the former media writer fo ...
, as the magazine increasingly published political and cultural stories of national significance.
Since its redesign and relaunch in 2004, the magazine has won more
National Magazine Awards
The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...
than any other publication, including the 2013 award for Magazine of the Year. It was one of the first dual-audience "
lifestyle magazine
Lifestyle journalism is the field of journalism that provides news and opinion, often in an entertaining tone, regarding goods and services used by consumers in their everyday life. Lifestyle journalism covers travel, fashion, fitness, leisure, fo ...
s", and its format and style have been emulated by some other American regional city publications.
In 2009, its paid and verified circulation was 408,622, with 95.8% of that coming from subscriptions. Its websites—''NYmag.com'', ''Vulture'', the ''Cut,'' and ''Grub Street''—received visits from more than 14 million users per month.
In 2018, New York Media, the parent company of ''New York'' magazine, instituted a
paywall
A paywall is a method of restricting access to content, with a purchase or a paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their websites as a way to increase revenue after years of ...
for all its online sites, followed by layoffs in early 2019.
On September 24, 2019,
Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...
announced that it had purchased ''New York'' magazine and its parent company, New York Media.
History
1960s
''New York'' began life in 1963 as the Sunday-magazine supplement of the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' newspaper. Edited first by Sheldon Zalaznick and then by
Clay Felker
Clay Schuette Felker (October 2, 1925 – July 1, 2008) was an American magazine editor and journalist who co-founded ''New York'' magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing numerous journalists into the profession. ''The New York Times'' wrote ...
, the magazine showcased the work of several talented Tribune contributors, including
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
,
Barbara Goldsmith
Barbara Goldsmith (May 18, 1931 – June 26, 2016) was an American author, journalist, and philanthropist. She received critical and popular acclaim for her best-selling books, essays, articles, and her philanthropic work. She was awarded four ...
, and
Jimmy Breslin
James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...
.
Soon after the ''Tribune'' went out of business in 1966–67, Felker and his partner,
Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser (June 26, 1929June 26, 2020) was an American graphic designer. His most notable designs include the I Love New York logo, a 1966 poster for Bob Dylan, and the logos for DC Comics, Stony Brook University and Brooklyn Brewery. In 1954 ...
, purchased the rights with money loaned to them by
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
bankers led by
Armand G. Erpf
Armand Grover Erpf (December 8, 1897 – February 2, 1971) was an American investment banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He was a senior partner at Loeb, Rhoades & Co., chairman of the Executive Committee of the Crowell-Collier Publishing ...
(who became the magazine's first chairman and who Felker attributed as the financial architect of the magazine) and C. Gerald Goldsmith (Barbara Goldsmith's husband at the time), and reincarnated the magazine as a stand-alone glossy. Joining them was managing editor Jack Nessel, Felker's number-two at the ''Herald Tribune.'' ''New York''s first issue was dated April 8, 1968.
Among the by-lines were many familiar names from the magazine's earlier incarnation, including Breslin, Wolfe (who wrote "You and Your Big Mouth: How the Honks and Wonks Reveal the Phonetic Truth about Status" in the inaugural issue
[), and ]George Goodman
George Jerome Waldo Goodman (August 10, 1930 – January 3, 2014) was an American author and economics broadcast commentator, best known by his pseudonym Adam Smith (which was assigned by Clay Felker at ''New York'' magazine in order to keep his ...
, a financial writer who wrote as "Adam Smith
Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...
".
Within a year, Felker had assembled a team of contributors who would come to define the magazine's voice. Breslin became a regular, as did Gloria Steinem
Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in ...
, who wrote the city-politics column, and Gail Sheehy
Gail Sheehy (born Gail Henion; November 27, 1936 – August 24, 2020) was an American author, journalist, and lecturer. She was the author of seventeen books and numerous high-profile articles for magazines such as ''New York'' and ''Vanity ...
. (Sheehy would eventually marry Felker, in 1984.) Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS. was hired as the theater critic. Judith Crist
Judith Crist (; May 22, 1922 – August 7, 2012) was an American film critic and academic.
She appeared regularly on the ''Today'' show from 1964 to 1973 Martin, Douglas (August 8, 2012)"Judith Crist, Zinging and Influential Film Critic, ...
wrote movie reviews. Alan Rich
Alan Rich (June 17, 1924 – April 23, 2010) was an American music critic who served on the staff of many newspapers and magazines on both coasts. Originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, he first studied medicine at Harvard University before tur ...
covered the classical-music scene. Barbara Goldsmith
Barbara Goldsmith (May 18, 1931 – June 26, 2016) was an American author, journalist, and philanthropist. She received critical and popular acclaim for her best-selling books, essays, articles, and her philanthropic work. She was awarded four ...
was a Founding Editor of ''New York'' magazine and the author of the widely imitated series, "The Creative Environment", in which she interviewed such subjects as Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer.
At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most im ...
, I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...
, George Balanchine
George Balanchine (;
Various sources:
*
*
*
* born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...
, and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
about their creative process. Gael Greene
Gael Greene (December 22, 1933 – November 1, 2022) was an American restaurant critic, author, and novelist. She became '' New York'' magazine's restaurant critic in fall 1968, at a time when most New Yorkers were unsophisticated about food and ...
, writing under the rubric "The Insatiable Critic", reviewed restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
s, cultivating a baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
writing style that leaned heavily on sexual metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
. Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
contributed a few stories for the magazine in its early years. The magazine's regional focus and innovative illustrations inspired numerous imitators across the country. The office for the magazine was on the top floor of the old Tammany Hall clubhouse at 207 East 32nd Street, which Glaser owned.
1970s
Wolfe, a regular contributor to the magazine, wrote a story in 1970 that captured the spirit of the magazine (if not the age): "Radical Chic
Radical chic is the fashionable practice of upper-class people associating with politically radical people and causes. Coined in the 1970 article "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's" by journalist Tom Wolfe, the term has become widely used in l ...
: That Party at Lenny's". The article described a benefit party for the Black Panthers
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...
, held in Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
's apartment, in a collision of high culture
High culture is a subculture that emphasizes and encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, art, and literature that a society cons ...
and low that paralleled ''New York'' magazine's ethos. In 1972, ''New York'', after a lot of convincing by Gloria Steinem, also launched ''Ms.
Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...
'' magazine, which began as a special issue. ''New West
New West Records is a record label based in Nashville, Tennessee, and Athens, Georgia. It had offices in Burbank, California, and Beverly Hills, California. The label was established in 1998 by Cameron Strang "for artists who perform real music ...
'', a sister magazine on ''New York'' model that covered California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
life, was also published for a few years in the 1970s.
As the 1970s progressed, Felker continued to broaden the magazine's editorial vision beyond Manhattan, covering Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
and the Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
scandal closely. In 1976, journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
Nik Cohn
Nik Cohn, also written Nick Cohn (born 1946), is a British writer.
Life and career
Cohn was born in London, England and brought up in Derry in Northern Ireland, the son of historian Norman Cohn and Russian writer Vera Broido. An incomer to the ...
contributed a story called "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night
"Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" is the title of a 1976 ''New York Magazine'' article by British rock journalist Nik Cohn, which formed the basis for the plot and inspired the characters for the 1977 movie ''Saturday Night Fever''.
Origin ...
," about a young man in a working-class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
neighborhood who, once a week, went to a local disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
called Odyssey 2001; the story was a sensation and served as the basis for the film ''Saturday Night Fever
''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends his ...
''. Twenty years later, Cohn admitted that he'd done no more than drive by Odyssey's door, and that he'd made the rest up. It was a recurring problem of what Wolfe, in 1972, had labeled "The New Journalism
New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non ...
."
In 1976, the Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
bought the magazine in a hostile takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...
, forcing Felker and Glaser out. A succession of editors followed, including Joe Armstrong and John Berendt
John Berendt (born December 5, 1939) is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'', which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.
Biography
Ber ...
.
1980s
In 1980, Murdoch hired Edward Kosner, who had worked at ''Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
''. Murdoch also bought '' Cue'', a listings magazine
A listings magazine is a magazine which is largely dedicated to information about the upcoming week's events such as broadcast programming, music, clubs, theatre and film information.
The BBC's ''Radio Times'' was the world's first listings m ...
founded by Mort Glankoff that had covered the city since 1932, and folded it into ''New York'', simultaneously creating a useful going-out guide and eliminating a competitor. Kosner's magazine tended toward a mix of newsmagazine-style stories, trend pieces, and pure "service" features—long articles on shopping and other consumer subjects—as well as close coverage of the glitzy 1980s New York City scene epitomized by financiers Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
and Saul Steinberg
Saul Steinberg (June 15, 1914 – May 12, 1999) was a Romanian-American artist, best known for his work for ''The New Yorker'', most notably ''View of the World from 9th Avenue''. He described himself as "a writer who draws".
Biography
Ste ...
. The magazine was profitable
In economics, profit is the difference between the revenue that an economic entity has received from its outputs and the total cost of its inputs. It is equal to total revenue minus total cost, including both explicit and implicit costs.
It i ...
for most of the 1980s. The term "the Brat Pack
The ''Brat Pack'' is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s. First mentioned in a 1985 ''New York'' magazine article, it is now usually defined as the cast ...
" was coined for a 1985 story in the magazine.
1990s
Murdoch got out of the magazine business in 1991 by selling his holdings to K-III Communications
RentPath Inc. is a media company that owns Rent.com, ApartmentGuide.com, Lovely, and Rentals.com, which combined see 16 million visitors each month. It was previously called K-III and PriMedia. The company was acquired by Redfin in April 2021.
H ...
, a partnership controlled by financier Henry Kravis
Henry R. Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.[Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...]
'' magazine. After several months' search, during which the magazine was run by managing editor Peter Herbst, K-III hired Kurt Andersen
Kurt Andersen (born August 22, 1954) is an American writer and was the host of the Peabody-winning public radio program ''Studio 360'', a production of Public Radio International, ''Slate'', and WNYC.
Early life and education
Andersen was bo ...
, the co-creator of ''Spy
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...
'', a humor monthly of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Andersen quickly replaced several staff members, bringing in many emerging and established writers (including Jim Cramer
James Joseph Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American television personality and author. He is the host of ''Mad Money'' on CNBC and an anchor on ''Squawk on the Street''. A former hedge fund manager, founder, and senior partner of Cramer ...
, Walter Kirn
Walter Norris Kirn (born August 3, 1962) is an American novelist, literary critic, and essayist. He is the author of eight books, most notably '' Up in the Air'', which was made into a film of the same name starring George Clooney.
Overview
As ...
, Michael Tomasky
Michael John Tomasky (born October 13, 1960) is an American columnist, progressive commentator, and author. He is the editor of ''The New Republic'' and editor in chief of ''Democracy''. He has been a special correspondent for ''Newsweek'', ''T ...
, and Jacob Weisberg
Jacob Weisberg (born 1964) is an American political journalist, who served as editor-in-chief of The Slate Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company. In September 2018, he left Slate to co-found Pushkin Industries, an audio content company, w ...
) and editors (including Michael Hirschorn, Kim France, Dany Levy
Dany may refer to:
People with the name Given name
A form of the Hebrew words and names ''Daniel (biblical figure), daniyyel'' דניאל (« God is my Judge ») or ''Dan (son of Jacob), dan'' דָּן (« judgement » or « he judged »)
*Dany Ab ...
, and Maer Roshan), and generally making the magazine faster-paced, younger in outlook, and more knowing in tone.
In August 1996, Bill Reilly
William Francis Reilly (June 8, 1938 – October 17, 2008) was an American publishing and media executive who was the founder and former chairman of Primedia. During Reilly's time at the helm of Primedia, the firm built a collection of more tha ...
fired Andersen from his editorship, citing the publication's financial results. According to Andersen, he was fired for refusing to kill a story about a rivalry between investment bankers Felix Rohatyn
Felix George Rohatyn ( ; May 29, 1928 – December 14, 2019) was an American investment banker and diplomat. He spent most of his career with Lazard, where he brokered numerous large corporate mergers and acquisitions from the 1960s through ...
and Steven Rattner
Steven Lawrence Rattner (born July 5, 1952) is a New York investment asset manager who served as lead adviser to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry in 2009. that had upset Henry Kravis
Henry R. Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.[Seventeen
Seventeen or 17 may refer to:
*17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18
* one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017
Literature
Magazines
* ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine
* ''Seventeen'' (Japanese m ...]
'', another K-III title.
2000s
In 2002 and 2003, Michael Wolff, the media critic hired by Miller in 1998, won two National Magazine Awards
The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...
for his column. At the end of 2003, ''New York'' was sold again, to financier Bruce Wasserstein
Bruce Jay Wasserstein (December 25, 1947 – October 14, 2009) was an American investment banker, businessman, and writer. He was a graduate of the McBurney School, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, and spe ...
, for $55 million.
Wasserstein replaced Miller with Adam Moss
Adam Moss is an American magazine and newspaper editor. From 2004 to 2019, he was the editor-in-chief of ''New York'' magazine. Under his editorship, ''New York'' was repeatedly recognized for excellence, notably winning Magazine of the Year in ...
, known for editing the short-lived New York weekly of the late 1980s ''7 Days'' and ''The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...
''.
In late 2004 the magazine was relaunched, most notably with two new sections: "The Strategist", devoted mostly to utility, and "The Culture Pages", covering the city's arts scene. Moss also rehired Kurt Andersen as a columnist. In early 2006, the company began an aggressive digital expansion with the relaunch of the magazine's website, previously nymetro.com, a
nymag.com
Since 2004, the magazine has won twenty four National Magazine Awards, more than any other magazine over this time period, including Magazine of the Year in 2013, General Excellence in Print four times, and General Excellence Online three times. During this same period it has been a finalist an additional 48 times in categories that included Profile Writing, Reviews and Criticism, Commentary, Public Service, Magazine Section, Leisure Interests, Personal Service, Single-Topic Issue, Photography, Photojournalism, Photo Portfolio, and Design. In 2007, when the magazine for the first time dominated the awards, much of the coverage the next day noted that ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' took home no awards that night, despite receiving nine nominations, and also noted that ''New York'' was the first magazine to win for both its print and Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
editions in the same year.
The February 25, 2008 issue featured a series of nude photographs of Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress and singer. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera '' An ...
. Shot by Bert Stern
Bertram Stern (October 3, 1929 – June 26, 2013) was an American commercial photographer.
Biography
Stern was the son of Jewish immigrants and grew up in Brooklyn. His father worked as a children's portrait photographer. After dropping out of h ...
, the series replicated several poses from Stern's widely reproduced final photos of Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
, shot shortly before the actress's fatal drug overdose. That week, the magazine's website received over 60 million hits and with traffic 2000 percent higher than usual.
The magazine is especially known for its food writing (its restaurant critic Adam Platt won a James Beard Award
The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...
in 2009, and its Underground Gourmet critics Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld have won two National Magazine Awards); and for its political coverage, especially John Heilemann
John Arthur Heilemann (born January 23, 1966) is an American journalist and national affairs analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. With Mark Halperin, he co-authored ''Game Change'' (2010) and '' Double Down'' (2013), books about presidential campaign ...
's reporting on the 2008 presidential election, which led to his (and Mark Halperin
Mark Evan Halperin (born January 11, 1965)Mark Halperin. ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Biography In Context. is an American journalist, currently a host and commentator for Newsmax TV. Halperin previously worked as ...
's) best-selling book ''Game Change
''Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime'' is a book by political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin about the 2008 United States presidential election. Released on January 11, 2010, it was als ...
'', and for coverage of the first two years of the Obama administration; ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'' praised its "hugely impressive political coverage" during this period.
''New York'' has been widely recognized for its design during this period, with back-to-back design wins at the National Magazine Awards and Magazine of the Year wins from the Society of Publication Designers (SPD) in 2006 and 2007. The 2008 Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008.
Spitzer was b ...
"Brain" cover was named Cover of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors
The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is an industry trade group for magazine journalists and editors of magazines published in the United States. ASME includes the editorial leaders of most major consumer magazine in print and digital ex ...
(ASME) and ''Advertising Age
''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mul ...
'' and 2009's "Bernie Madoff
Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDA ...
, Monster" was named Best News & Business Cover by ASME. ''New York'' won back-to-back ASME Cover of the Year awards in 2012 and 2013, for "Is She Just Too Old for This?" and "The City and the Storm" respectively. Design director Chris Dixon and photography director Jody Quon were named "Design Team of the Year" by Adweek
''Adweek'' is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1979. ''Adweek'' covers creativity, client–agency relationships, global advertising, accounts in review, and new campaigns. During this time, it has cover ...
in 2008.
In 2009, after Bruce Wasserstein
Bruce Jay Wasserstein (December 25, 1947 – October 14, 2009) was an American investment banker, businessman, and writer. He was a graduate of the McBurney School, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, and spe ...
's death, the magazine's ownership passed to his family. Many obituaries noted Wasserstein's revival of the magazine. "While previous owners had required constant features in the magazine about the best place to get a croissant or a beret," wrote David Carr of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', "it was clear that Wasserstein wanted a publication that was the best place to learn about the complicated apparatus that is modern New York. In enabling as much, Mr. Wasserstein recaptured the original intent of the magazine's founder, Clay Felker
Clay Schuette Felker (October 2, 1925 – July 1, 2008) was an American magazine editor and journalist who co-founded ''New York'' magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing numerous journalists into the profession. ''The New York Times'' wrote ...
."
2010s
On March 1, 2011, it was announced that Frank Rich
Frank Hart Rich Jr. (born 1949) is an American essayist and liberal op-ed columnist, who held various positions within ''The New York Times'' from 1980 to 2011. He has also produced television series and documentaries for HBO.
Rich is current ...
would leave ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' to become an essayist and editor-at-large for ''New York''. Rich began his relationship with the magazine starting in June 2011.
''New York''s "Encyclopedia of 9/11", published on the tenth anniversary of the attacks, was widely praised, with Gizmodo calling it "heartbreaking, locked in the past, and entirely current"; the issue won a National Magazine Award for Single-Topic Issue.
''New York''s offices in lower Manhattan were without electricity in the week following Hurricane Sandy, so the editorial staff published an issue from the midtown office of Wasserstein & Company, the firm that owns New York Media. The issue's cover, shot by photographer Iwan Baan from a helicopter and showing Manhattan half in darkness, almost immediately became an iconic image of the storm, and was named the magazine cover of the year by Time. The photograph on the cover was published as a poster by the Museum of Modern Art, with proceeds benefiting Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
In 2013, ''New York'' magazine took the top honor at the National Magazine Awards again receiving magazine of the year for its print and digital coverage.
In December 2013, the magazine announced plans to move to a biweekly format in March 2014, reducing from 42 annual issues to 29. Jared Hohlt
Jared Hohlt (born 1971 or 1972) is an American writer and magazine editor. He was named editor of Slate (magazine), Slate magazine in March 2019. He is a 1994 graduate of Harvard University.
Career
Hohlt's first job was at Slate, as an editoria ...
became top editor of the printed magazine in 2014.
In April 2016, the magazine announced the launch of Select All, a new vertical dedicated to technology and innovation. In 2019, Select All was shuttered and folded into the broadened "Intelligencer" news site.
In December 2018, ''New York''s fashion and beauty destination site "the Cut", carried a piece titled "Is Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas' Love for Real?", that drew severe backlash from readers for accusing Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra Jonas (; ; born 18 July 1982) is an Indian actress and producer. The winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant, Chopra is one of India's highest-paid actresses and has received numerous accolades, including two National Film Awar ...
of trapping Nick Jonas
Nicholas Jerry Jonas (born September 16, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. Jonas began acting on Broadway at the age of seven, and released his debut single in 2002; this caught the attention of Columbia Records, where Jonas ...
into a fraudulent relationship and being a "global scam artist". The publication removed the piece the following morning and issued an apology.
In January 2019, Moss announced that he was retiring from the editorship. David Haskell (editor)
David Haskell is an American magazine editor and a co-founder of Kings County Distillery. He is also a gallery-represented ceramist. He was named editor-in-chief of ''New York'' in 2019, replacing longtime editor Adam Moss At the time of Haskell's ...
, one of his chief deputies, succeeded him as editor on April 1, 2019. That same spring, the magazine laid off staff members and temps.
On September 24, 2019, Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...
announced that it had purchased ''New York'' magazine, and its parent company, New York Media.
In May 2020, Vox Media
Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...
announced it was merging the real estate site ''Curbed
''Curbed'' is an American real estate and urban design website founded as a blog by Lockhart Steele in 2006. The full website, founded in 2010, featured sub-pages dedicated to specific real estate markets and metropolitan areas across the Unit ...
'' into ''New York'' magazine.
Puzzles and competitions
''New York'' magazine was once known for its competitions and unique crossword puzzles
A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the ans ...
. For the first year of the magazine's existence, the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
contributed an extremely complex cryptic crossword
A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, includi ...
to every third issue. In the style of British crosswords (as they are sometimes called), the cryptic crosswords feature clues that include a straight definition and a wordplay definition. Richard Maltby, Jr.
Richard Eldridge Maltby Jr. (born October 6, 1937) is an American theatre director and producer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He conceived and directed the only two musical revues to win the Tony Award for Best Musical: '' Ain't Misbehavin ( ...
took over thereafter. Since 1980, the magazine has also run an American-style crossword. For the first 30 years the puzzle was always by Maura Jacobson
Maura Jacobson (April 28, 1926 – December 25, 2017) was an American crossword puzzle constructor, who created 1,400 puzzles during 30 years constructing a weekly crossword puzzle for '' New York'' magazine and another 66 puzzles for ''The New Yo ...
, but beginning in the summer of 2010, Cathy Allis Millhauser's byline began appearing in alternate weeks, and the magazine announced her as permanent co-constructor in September 2010. Jacobson retired in April 2011, having created 1,400 puzzles for the magazine, including 30 years when she wrote a puzzle every single week without missing an issue. The cryptic crosswords were eventually dropped.
In the remaining two weeks out of every three, Sondheim's friend Mary Ann Madden edited an extremely popular witty literary competition calling for readers to send in humorous poetry or other bits of wordplay on a theme that changed with each installment. (A typical entry, in a competition calling for humorous epitaphs, supplied this one for Geronimo: "Requiescat in Apache.") Altogether, Madden ran 973 installments of the competition, retiring in 2000. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of entries were received each week, and winners included David Mamet
David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first ...
, Herb Sargent
Herbert Sargent (born Supowitz; July 15, 1923 – May 6, 2005) was an American television writer, a producer for such comedy shows as ''The Tonight Show'' and ''Saturday Night Live'', and a screenwriter ('' Bye Bye Braverman''). During his tenu ...
, and Dan Greenburg
Dan Greenburg (born June 19, 1936) is an American writer, humorist, and journalist. His 73 books have been published in 20 languages in 24 countries.
His best-selling books for adults include the non-fiction books '' How to Be a Jewish Mother: ...
. David Halberstam
David Halberstam (April 10, 1934 April 23, 2007) was an American writer, journalist, and historian, known for his work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, Korean War, and later ...
once claimed that he had submitted entries 137 times without winning. Sondheim, Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
, and Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award f ...
were fans.
The Competition's demise, when Madden retired, was greatly lamented among its fans. In August 2000, the magazine published a letter from an Irish contestant, John O'Byrne, who wrote: "How I'll miss the fractured definitions, awful puns, conversation stoppers, one-letter misprints, ludicrous proverbs, openings of bad novels, near misses, et al. (what a nice guy Al is!)." Many entrants have since migrated to ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''s similar "Style Invitational
The Style Invitational, or Invite, is a long-running humor contest that ran first in the Style section of the Sunday ''Washington Post'' before moving to Saturday's Style and later returning to the Sunday paper. Started in 1993, it has run weekly, ...
" feature. Three volumes of Competition winners were published, titled ''Thank You for the Giant Sea Tortoise'', ''Son of Giant Sea Tortoise'', and ''Maybe He's Dead: And Other Hilarious Results of New York Magazine Competitions''.
Digital expansion and destination sites
In 2006, ''New York''s website, NYMag.com, underwent a year-long relaunch, transforming from a magazine companion to an up-to-the-minute news and service destination. In 2008, parent company New York Media purchased the online restaurant and menu resource MenuPages, which serves eight markets across the U.S., as a complement to its own online restaurant listings and to gain a foothold in seven additional cities. In 2011, MenuPages was sold to Seamless. As of July 2010, digital revenue accounted for fully one third of company advertising revenue.[New York's NYmag.com Is Ad Age's Magazine A-List Website of the Year](_blank)
, an October 2009 ''Ad Age
''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mul ...
'' article
The website includes several branded destination sites: ''Daily Intelligencer'' (up-to-date news), the ''Cut'' (women's issues), ''Grub Street'' (food and restaurants), and ''Vulture'' (pop culture). David Carr noted in an August 2010 column, "In a way, ''New York'' magazine is fast becoming a digital enterprise with a magazine attached."
The ''Cut''
The ''Cut'' launched on the ''New York'' website in 2008 to replace previous fashion week
A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, where fashion designers, brands or "houses" display their latest collections in runway fashion shows to buyers and the media. These events influence the upcoming fashion ...
blog ''Show & Talk''. The ''Cut'' was relaunched in 2012 as a standalone website, shifting in focus from fashion to women's issues more generally. Stella Bugbee became Editor-in-Chief in 2017. On August 21, 2017, ''New York'' announced the redesign and re-organization of the ''Cut'' website.'' ''The new site was designed for an enhanced mobile-first experience and to better reflect the topics covered. In January 2018, the ''Cut'' published Moira Donegan's essay revealing her as the creator of the controversial "Shitty Media Men
Shitty Media Men was a crowdsourcing, crowdsourced Google Sheets, Google spreadsheet created in October 2017 that collected allegations and rumors of sexual misconduct by about 70 men in the Mass media, media industry, particularly in New York City ...
" list, a viral but short-lived anonymous spreadsheet crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
unconfirmed reports of sexual misconduct by men in journalism. The ''Cut'' also includes the pop science section ''Science of Us'', which was previously a standalone site.
''Grub Street''
''Grub Street'', covering food and restaurants, was expanded in 2009 to five additional cities served by former nymag.com sister site MenuPages.com. In 2013 it was announced that ''Grub Street'' would close its city blogs outside New York, and bring a more national focus to GrubStreet.com.
''Vulture''
In 2018, ''Vulture'' acquired the comedy news blog ''Splitsider
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' ...
'', folding the operation into the ''Vulture'' website.
The ''Strategist''
In 2016, ''New York'' launched the ''Strategist'', an expansion of a column from the print version of ''New York'' Magazine that aimed to help readers navigate shopping from the ''New York'' perspective. The site joined other product review sites focusing on providing free product reviews to readers, generating affiliate commissions when readers would purchase a product they recommended. The early editorial team included editors David Haskell and Alexis Swerdloff. Popular recurring franchises include celebrity shopping "What I Can't Live Without" series, "Strategist-Approved" gift guides, and beauty reviews by influencer Rio Viera-Newton. The ''Strategist'' does not publish branded content, but it earns revenue through affiliate advertising, including the Amazon Associates Program. In 2018, the ''Strategist'' experimented with a holiday pop-up retail experience called I Found It at the Strategist. In 2021, the ''Strategist'' experimented with on-site shopping, which allowed users to purchase select products without leaving the website.
Books
In the 2000s ''New York'' published five books:
* ''New York Look Book: A Gallery of Street Fashion'' (Melcher Media
Melcher Media is a book packager and publisher in New York City, New York, founded in 1994 by Charles Melcher. The company’s focuses include theater-, movie-, and TV-related books; environmental titles; pop-up books; and DuraBooks.
The compa ...
, 2007)
* ''New York Stories: Landmark Writing from Four Decades of New York Magazine'' (Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 2008)
* ''My First New York: Early Adventures in the Big City (As Remembered by Actors, Artists, Athletes, Chefs, Comedians, Filmmakers, Mayors, Models, Moguls, Porn Stars, Rockers, Writers, and Others)'' (Ecco
Ecco or ECCO may refer to:
Art and entertainment
* ''Ecco the Dolphin'' (series), a series of action-adventure science fiction video games
** ''Ecco the Dolphin'', a 1992 video game
* Ecco (''Gotham''), a TV series character
Organizations
...
/ HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
, 2010)
* ''In Season: More Than 150 Fresh and Simple Recipes from New York Magazine Inspired by Farmers' Market Ingredients'' (Blue Rider Press, 2012)
* ''Highbrow, Lowbrow, Brilliant, Despicable: 50 Years of New York'' (Simon & Schuster, 2017)
Television
Michael Hirschorn's Ish Entertainment developed a TV pilot for Bravo
Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels
*Bravo (band), a Russian rock band
* Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984
*Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...
inspired by the magazine's popular weekly Approval Matrix feature, which has appeared in the magazine since November 2004.
''New York''s art critic Jerry Saltz is a judge on Bravo's fine art reality competition series ''Work of Art: The Next Great Artist''. Additionally, Grub Street Senior Editor Alan Sytsma appeared as a guest on judge on three episodes of the third season of ''Top Chef Masters''.
See also
*Media of New York City
New York City has been called the media capital of the world. The media of New York City are internationally influential and include some of the most important newspapers, largest publishing houses, biggest record companies, and most prolific te ...
References
External links
*
40th Anniversary
*
{{Vox Media
2019 mergers and acquisitions
Biweekly magazines published in the United States
Lifestyle magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1968
Magazines published in New York City
Vox Media
1968 establishments in New York City