''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 covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the
cultural life of New York City, ''The New Yorker'' has a wide audience outside New York and is read internationally. It is well known for its illustrated and often topical covers, its commentaries on
popular culture and eccentric
American culture, its attention to modern
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tra ...
by the inclusion of
short stories and literary
reviews, its rigorous
fact checking and
copy editing
Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material ( copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual o ...
,
its
journalism on politics and
social issues
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's cont ...
, and its single-panel
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
s sprinkled throughout each issue.
Overview and history

''The New Yorker'' was founded by
Harold Ross and his wife
Jane Grant, a ''
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 ...
'' reporter, and debuted on February 21, 1925. Ross wanted to create a sophisticated humor magazine that would be different from perceivably "corny" humor publications such as ''
Judge'', where he had worked, or the old ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
''. Ross partnered with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann (who founded the General Baking Company) to establish the F-R Publishing Company. The magazine's first offices were at 25 West 45th Street in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
. Ross edited the magazine until his death in 1951. During the early, occasionally precarious years of its existence, the magazine prided itself on its cosmopolitan sophistication. Ross declared in a 1925 prospectus for the magazine: "It has announced that it is not edited for the old lady in
Dubuque
Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...
."
Although the magazine never lost its touches of humor, it soon established itself as a pre-eminent forum for serious
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tra ...
,
essays and journalism. Shortly after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
,
John Hersey
John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...
's essay ''
Hiroshima'' filled an entire issue. The magazine has published short stories by many of the most respected writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including
Ann Beattie,
Sally Benson,
Maeve Brennan,
Truman Capote,
Rachel Carson,
John Cheever,
Roald Dahl,
Mavis Gallant,
Geoffrey Hellman,
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
,
Stephen King,
Ruth McKenney,
John McNulty,
Joseph Mitchell
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
,
Alice Munro,
Haruki Murakami,
Vladimir Nabokov,
John O'Hara,
Dorothy Parker,
S.J. Perelman,
Philip Roth,
George Saunders,
J. D. Salinger,
Irwin Shaw,
James Thurber,
John Updike,
Eudora Welty, and
E. B. White. Publication of
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two me ...
's "
The Lottery" drew more mail than any other story in the magazine's history.
In its early decades, the magazine sometimes published two or even three short stories in an issue, but in later years the pace has remained steady at one story per issue.
The non-fiction feature articles (which usually make up the bulk of the magazine's content) cover an eclectic array of topics. Subjects have included eccentric evangelist
Creflo Dollar, the different ways in which humans perceive the passage of time, and
Münchausen syndrome by proxy.
The magazine is known for its editorial traditions. Under the rubric ''Profiles'', it has published articles about prominent people such as
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
,
Henry R. Luce and
Marlon Brando, Hollywood restaurateur
Michael Romanoff, magician
Ricky Jay and mathematicians
David and Gregory Chudnovsky. Other enduring features have been "Goings on About Town", a listing of cultural and entertainment events in New York, and "The Talk of the Town", a
feuilleton or miscellany of brief pieces—frequently humorous, whimsical or eccentric vignettes of life in New York—written in a breezily light style, although latterly the section often begins with a serious commentary. For many years, newspaper snippets containing amusing errors, unintended meanings or badly mixed metaphors ("Block That Metaphor") have been used as filler items, accompanied by a witty retort. There is no masthead listing the editors and staff. Despite some changes, the magazine has kept much of its traditional appearance over the decades in typography, layout, covers and artwork. The magazine was acquired by
Advance Publications, the media company owned by
Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr, in 1985, for $200 million when it was earning less than $6 million a year.
Ross was succeeded as editor by
William Shawn (1951–87), followed by
Robert Gottlieb (1987–92) and
Tina Brown (1992–98). The current editor of ''The New Yorker'' is
David Remnick, who succeeded Brown in July 1998.
Among the important nonfiction authors who began writing for the magazine during Shawn's editorship were
Dwight Macdonald,
Kenneth Tynan, and
Hannah Arendt, whose ''Eichmann in Jerusalem'' reportage appeared in the magazine before it was published as a book.
Brown's tenure attracted more controversy than Gottlieb's or even Shawn's, thanks to her high profile (Shawn, by contrast, had been an extremely shy, introverted figure), and to the changes she made to a magazine with a similar look for the previous half-century. She introduced color to the editorial pages (several years before ''
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 ...
'') and included photography, with less type on each page and a generally more modern layout. More substantively, she increased the coverage of current events and topics such as celebrities and business tycoons, and placed short pieces throughout "Goings on About Town", including a racy column about nightlife in Manhattan. A letters-to-the-editor page was introduced, and authors' personal bylines were added to their "Talk of the Town" pieces.
Since the late 1990s, ''The New Yorker'' has used the Internet to publish current and archived material, and maintains a website with some content from the current issue (plus exclusive web-only content). Subscribers have access to the full current issue online, as well as a complete archive of back issues viewable as they were originally printed. In addition, ''The New Yorker''s cartoons are available for purchase online. A digital archive of back issues from 1925 to April 2008 (representing more than 4,000 issues and half a million pages) has also been issued on DVD-ROMs and on a small portable hard drive. More recently, an iPad version of the current issue of the magazine has been released.
The magazine's editorial staff unionized in 2018 and
The New Yorker Union signed their first
collective bargaining agreement in 2021.
Influence and significance
''The New Yorker'' influenced a number of similar magazines, including
''The Brooklynite'' (1926 to 1930), ''
The Chicagoan
''The Chicagoan'' was an American magazine modeled after ''The New Yorker'' published from June 1926 until April 1935. Focusing on the cultural life of the city of Chicago, each issue of ''The Chicagoan'' contained art, music, and drama reviews, p ...
'' (1926 to 1935), and Paris's ''
The Boulevardier'' (1927 to 1932).
Kurt Vonnegut said that ''The New Yorker'' has been an effective instrument for getting a large audience to appreciate modern literature. Vonnegut's 1974 interview with Joe David Bellamy and John Casey contained a discussion of ''The New Yorker''s influence:
Tom Wolfe wrote about the magazine: "The ''New Yorker'' style was one of leisurely meandering understatement, droll when in the humorous mode, tautological and
litotical when in the serious mode, constantly amplified, qualified, adumbrated upon, nuanced and renuanced, until the magazine's pale-gray pages became High Baroque triumphs of the relative clause and appository modifier".
Joseph Rosenblum, reviewing
Ben Yagoda's ''About Town'', a history of the magazine from 1925 to 1985, wrote, "''The New Yorker'' did create its own universe. As one longtime reader wrote to Yagoda, this was a place 'where
Peter DeVries ... was forever lifting a glass of
Piesporter, where
Niccolò Tucci Niccolò Tucci (May 1, 1908 – December 10, 1999) was a short story writer and novelist who wrote in English and Italian.
Early life and family
Tucci was born in Lugano, Switzerland, on 1 May 1908, to a Russian mother and an Italian father who be ...
(in a plum velvet
dinner jacket) flirted in Italian with
Muriel Spark, where Nabokov sipped tawny
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...
from a prismatic goblet (while a
Red Admirable perched on his pinky), and where John Updike tripped over the master's Swiss shoes, excusing himself charmingly.
Cinema
''The New Yorker'' has been the source for motion pictures. Both fiction and non-fiction pieces have been adapted for the big screen, including the upcoming ''
Coyote vs. Acme'', ''
Spiderhead'' (2022), based on the ''New Yorker'' story ''Escape from Spiderhead'', ''
Flash of Genius'' (2008), based on a true account of the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper by
John Seabrook; ''
Away From Her'', adapted from Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came over the Mountain", which debuted at the 2007
Sundance Film Festival; ''
The Namesake'' (2007), similarly based on
Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, which originated as a short story in the magazine; ''
The Bridge The Bridge may refer to:
Art, entertainment and media Art
* ''The Bridge'' (sculpture), a 1997 sculpture in Atlanta, Georgia, US
* Die Brücke (''The Bridge''), a group of German expressionist artists
* ''The Bridge'' (M. C. Escher), a lithograph ...
'' (2006), based on
Tad Friend's 2003 non-fiction piece "Jumpers"; ''
Brokeback Mountain'' (2005), an adaptation of the short story by
Annie Proulx that first appeared in the October 13, 1997, issue of ''The New Yorker'';
Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels ''Everything Is Illuminated'' (2002), ''Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005), ''Here I Am (novel), Here I Am'' (2016), and for his non-fict ...
's 2001 debut in ''The New Yorker'', which later came to theaters in Liev Schreiber's debut as both screenwriter and director, ''
Everything Is Illuminated
''Everything Is Illuminated'' is the first novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. It was adapted into a film of the same name starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz in 2005.
The book's writing and structure recei ...
'' (2005);
Michael Cunningham's''
The Hours'', which appeared in the pages of ''The New Yorker'' before becoming the film that garnered the 2002 Best Actress Academy Award for
Nicole Kidman; ''
Adaptation'' (2002), which
Charlie Kaufman based on
Susan Orlean's ''The Orchid Thief'', written for ''The New Yorker''; Frank McCourt's ''
Angela's Ashes'' (1999), which also appeared, in part, in ''The New Yorker'' before its film adaptation was released in 1999; ''
The Addams Family'' (1991) and its sequel, ''
Addams Family Values'' (1993), both inspired by the work of ''New Yorker'' cartoonist
Charles Addams;
Brian De Palma's ''
Casualties of War'' (1989), which began as a ''New Yorker'' article by Daniel Lang; ''
Boys Don't Cry'' (1999), starring Hilary Swank, began as an article in the magazine, and ''
Iris'' (2001), about the life of Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, the article written by John Bayley for ''The New Yorker'', before he completed his full memoir, the film starring Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent; ''
The Swimmer'' (1968), starring
Burt Lancaster, based on a John Cheever short story from ''The New Yorker''; ''
In Cold Blood'' (1967), the widely nominated adaptation of the 1965 non-fiction serial written for ''The New Yorker'' by
Truman Capote; ''
Pal Joey'' (1957), based on a series of stories by John O'Hara; ''
Mister 880'' (1950), starring
Edmund Gwenn, based on a story by longtime editor
St. Clair McKelway
St. Clair McKelway (February 13, 1905 – January 10, 1980) was a writer and editor for ''The New Yorker'' magazine beginning in 1933.
Childhood
McKelway was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Alexander McKelway, a Presbyterian minister ...
; ''
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'' (1947), which began as a story by longtime ''New Yorker'' contributor James Thurber; and ''
Junior Miss'' (1941) and ''
Meet Me in St. Louis'' (1944), both adapted from
Sally Benson's short stories.
United States presidential election endorsements
In its issue dated November 1, 2004, the magazine endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time, choosing to endorse
Democrat John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
over incumbent
Republican George W. Bush.
Cartoons
''The New Yorker'' has featured cartoons (usually
gag cartoons) since it began publication in 1925. The cartoon editor of ''The New Yorker'' for years was
Lee Lorenz, who first began cartooning in 1956 and became a ''New Yorker'' contract contributor in 1958. After serving as the magazine's art editor from 1973 to 1993 (when he was replaced by
Françoise Mouly), he continued in the position of cartoon editor until 1998. His book ''The Art of the New Yorker: 1925–1995'' (Knopf, 1995) was the first comprehensive survey of all aspects of the magazine's graphics. In 1998,
Robert Mankoff took over as cartoon editor and edited at least 14 collections of ''New Yorker'' cartoons. In addition, Mankoff usually contributed a short article to each book, describing some aspect of the cartooning process or the methods used to select cartoons for the magazine. Mankoff left the magazine in 2017.
''The New Yorker''s stable of cartoonists has included many important talents in American humor, including
Charles Addams,
Peter Arno,
Charles Barsotti,
George Booth,
Roz Chast,
Tom Cheney,
Sam Cobean
Sam Cobean (December 28, 1913 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – July 2, 1951 in Schuyler County, New York) was a cartoonist, especially known for his work in '' The New Yorker'' in the 1940s and 1950s.
His book of cartoons, '' The Naked Eye'', has ...
,
Leo Cullum,
Richard Decker,
Pia Guerra,
J. B. Handelsman,
Helen E. Hokinson,
Ed Koren,
Burr Shafer,
Reginald Marsh,
Mary Petty,
George Price George Price may refer to:
* George Price (footballer) (c. 1878–1938), footballer
* George Price (cartoonist) (1901–1995), American cartoonist
* George Cadle Price (1919–2011), prime minister of Belize
* George E. Price (1848–1938), member ...
,
Charles Saxon,
Otto Soglow,
Saul Steinberg,
William Steig,
James Stevenson,
James Thurber,
Pete Holmes, and
Gahan Wilson.
Many early ''New Yorker'' cartoonists did not caption their own cartoons. In his book ''The Years with Ross'', Thurber describes the newspaper's weekly art meeting, where cartoons submitted over the previous week would be brought up from the mail room to be looked over by Ross, the editorial department, and a number of staff writers. Cartoons often would be rejected or sent back to artists with requested amendments, while others would be accepted and captions written for them. Some artists hired their own writers; Helen Hokinson hired James Reid Parker in 1931. (
Brendan Gill relates in his book ''Here at The New Yorker'' that at one point in the early 1940s, the quality of the artwork submitted to the magazine seemed to improve. It later was found out that the office boy (a teenaged
Truman Capote) had been acting as a volunteer art editor, dropping pieces he didn't like down the far end of his desk.)
Several of the magazine's cartoons have climbed to a higher plateau of fame. One 1928 cartoon drawn by
Carl Rose and captioned by
E. B. White shows a mother telling her daughter, "It's broccoli, dear." The daughter responds, "I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it." The phrase "
I say it's spinach" entered the vernacular (and three years later, the Broadway musical ''Face the Music'' included
Irving Berlin's musical number entitled "
I Say It's Spinach (And the Hell with It)"). The
catchphrase "
back to the drawing board" originated with the 1941 Peter Arno cartoon showing an engineer walking away from a crashed plane, saying, "Well, back to the old drawing board."
The most reprinted is
Peter Steiner's 1993 drawing of two dogs at a computer, with one saying, "
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog". According to Mankoff, Steiner and the magazine have split more than $100,000 in fees paid for the licensing and reprinting of this single cartoon, with more than half going to Steiner.
Over seven decades, many hardcover compilations of cartoons from ''The New Yorker'' have been published, and in 2004, Mankoff edited ''The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker'', a 656-page collection with 2004 of the magazine's best cartoons published during 80 years, plus a double CD set with all 68,647 cartoons ever published in the magazine. This features a search function allowing readers to search for cartoons by a cartoonist's name or by year of publication. The newer group of cartoonists in recent years includes
Pat Byrnes,
J. C. Duffy,
Liana Finck,
Robert Leighton,
Michael Maslin,
Julia Suits, and
P. C. Vey. Will McPhail cited his beginnings are "just ripping off ''Calvin and Hobbes'', Bill Watterson, and doing little dot eyes." The notion that some ''New Yorker'' cartoons have punchlines so ''
non sequitur'' that they are impossible to understand became a subplot in the ''
Seinfeld'' episode "
The Cartoon", as well as a playful jab in an episode of ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'', "
The Sweetest Apu".
In April 2005, the magazine began using the last page of each issue for "The New Yorker Cartoon
Caption Contest". Captionless cartoons by ''The New Yorker''s regular cartoonists are printed each week. Captions are submitted by readers, and three are chosen as finalists. Readers then vote on the winner. Anyone age thirteen or older can enter or vote. Each contest winner receives a print of the cartoon (with the winning caption), signed by the artist who drew the cartoon.
Comics journalism
Since 1993, the magazine has published occasional stories of
comics journalism (alternately called "sketchbook reports")
[McGee, Kathleen]
"SPIEGELMAN SPEAKS: Art Spiegelman is the author of Maus for which he won a special Pulitzer in 1992. Kathleen McGee interviewed him when he visited Minneapolis in 1998,"
''Conduit'' (1998). by such cartoonists as
Marisa Acocella Marchetto
Marisa Acocella Marchetto (born 1962 in New Jersey) is an American cartoonist. She is the author of the ''New York Times'' best-selling graphic novel ''Ann Tenna'', the graphic memoir ''Cancer Vixen'', and ''Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway?'' Sh ...
,
Barry Blitt,
Sue Coe,
Robert Crumb and
Aline Kominsky-Crumb,
Jules Feiffer,
Ben Katchor,
Carol Lay,
Gary Panter,
Art Spiegelman,
Mark Alan Stamaty, and
Ronald Wimberly
Ronald Wimberly (born April 28, 1979) is an American cartoonist. He has published several graphic novels, as well as shorter works for '' The New Yorker'', DC/Vertigo, Nike, Marvel, Hill and Wang, and Dark Horse Comics. Wimberly was the 2016 ...
.
Crosswords and puzzles
''The New Yorker'' launched a crossword puzzle series in April 2018 with a weekday crossword published every Monday. Subsequently, it launched a second, weekend crossword that appears on Fridays and relaunched cryptic puzzles that were run in the magazine in the late 1990s, and in June 2021, it began publishing new cryptics weekly. In July 2021, ''The New Yorker'' introduced Name Drop, a trivia game, which is posted online weekdays. In March 2022, ''The New Yorker'' moved to publishing online crosswords every weekday, with decreasing difficulty Monday through Thursday and themed puzzles on Fridays. The puzzles are written by a rotating stable of thirteen constructors. The crosswords integrate cartoons into the puzzle playing experience. The Christmas 2019 issue featured a crossword puzzle by Patrick Berry that had cartoons as clues, and the answers were captions for the cartoons. In December 2019, Liz Maynes-Aminzade was named the first puzzles and games editor of ''The New Yorker''.
Eustace Tilley

The magazine's first cover illustration, a
dandy peering at a butterfly through a
monocle, was drawn by
Rea Irvin, the magazine's first art editor, based on an 1834 caricature of the then
Count d'Orsay which appeared as an illustration in the 11th edition of the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...
''. The gentleman on the original cover, now referred to as "Eustace Tilley", is a character created by
Corey Ford (1902–1969) for ''The New Yorker''. The hero of a series entitled "The Making of a Magazine", which began on the inside front cover of the August 8 issue that first summer, Tilley was a younger man than the figure on the original cover. His
top hat was of a newer style, without the curved brim. He wore a
morning coat and striped
formal trousers. Ford borrowed Eustace Tilley's last name from an aunt—he had always found it vaguely humorous. "Eustace" was selected by Ford for
euphony.
The character has become a kind of
mascot for ''The New Yorker'', frequently appearing in its pages and on promotional materials. Traditionally, Rea Irvin's original Tilley cover illustration is used every year on the issue closest to the anniversary date of February 21, though on several occasions a newly drawn variation has been substituted.
Covers
The magazine is known for its illustrated and often topical covers.
"View of the World" cover
Saul Steinberg created 85 covers and 642 internal drawings and illustrations for the magazine. His most famous work is probably its March 29, 1976, cover, an illustration most often referred to as "View of the World from
9th Avenue", sometimes referred to as "A
Parochial New Yorker's View of the World" or "A New Yorker's View of the World", which depicts a map of the world as seen by
self-absorbed New Yorkers.
The illustration is split in two, with the bottom half of the image showing
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
's 9th Avenue,
10th Avenue, and the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...
(appropriately labeled), and the top half depicting the rest of the world. The rest of the United States is the size of the three New York City blocks and is drawn as a square, with a thin brown strip along the Hudson representing
"Jersey", the names of five cities (
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
;
Washington, D.C.;
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...
;
Kansas City; and
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
) and three states (
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
, and
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...
) scattered among a few rocks for the United States beyond New Jersey. The Pacific Ocean, perhaps half again as wide as the Hudson, separates the United States from three flattened land masses labeled China, Japan and Russia.
The illustration—humorously depicting New Yorkers' self-image of their place in the world, or perhaps outsiders' view of New Yorkers' self-image—inspired many similar works, including the poster for the 1984 film ''
Moscow on the Hudson''; that movie poster led to a lawsuit, ''
Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.'', 663 F. Supp. 706 (
S.D.N.Y.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...
1987), which held that
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multi ...
violated the
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
that Steinberg held on his work.
The cover was later satirized by
Barry Blitt for the cover of ''The New Yorker'' on October 6, 2008. The cover featured
Sarah Palin looking out of her window seeing only Alaska, with Russia in the far background.
The March 21, 2009, cover of ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...
'', "How China sees the World", is also an homage to the original image, depicting the viewpoint from Beijing's
Chang'an Avenue instead of Manhattan.
9/11
Hired by Tina Brown in 1992,
Art Spiegelman worked for ''The New Yorker'' for ten years but resigned a few months after the
September 11 terrorist attacks. The cover created by Françoise Mouly and Spiegelman for the September 24, 2001, issue of ''The New Yorker'' received wide acclaim and was voted as being among the top ten magazine covers of the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors, which commented:
At first glance, the cover appears to be totally black, but upon close examination it reveals the silhouettes of the
World Trade Center towers in a slightly darker shade of black. In some situations, the ghost images become visible only when the magazine is tilted toward a light source. In September 2004, Spiegelman reprised the image on the cover of his book ''
In the Shadow of No Towers'', in which he relates his experience of the Twin Towers attack and the psychological after-effects.
"New Yorkistan"
In the December 2001 issue, the magazine printed a cover by
Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman is an American artist, illustrator, writer, and designer known for her painting and writing about the human condition. She is the author and illustrator of over 30 books for adults and children and her work is exhibited in museums a ...
and
Rick Meyerowitz showing a map of New York in which various neighborhoods were labeled with humorous names reminiscent of Middle Eastern and Central Asian place names and referencing the neighborhood's real name or characteristics (e.g., "Fuhgeddabouditstan", "Botoxia"). The cover had some cultural resonance in the wake of September 11, and became a popular print and poster.
Controversial covers
Crown Heights in 1993
For the 1993
Valentine's Day issue, the magazine cover by
Art Spiegelman depicted a black woman and a
Hasidic Jewish man kissing, referencing the
Crown Heights riot of 1991.
The cover was criticized by both black and Jewish observers.
Jack Salzman and
Cornel West describe the reaction to the cover as the magazine's "first national controversy".
2008 Obama cover satire and controversy
"The Politics of Fear", a cartoon by
Barry Blitt featured on the cover of the July 21, 2008, issue, depicts then presumptive
Democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
presidential
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
nominee
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
in the
turban and
shalwar kameez typical of many
Muslims,
fist bumping with his wife,
Michelle
Michelle may refer to:
People
* Michelle (name), a given name and surname, the feminine form of Michael
* Michelle Courtens, Dutch singer, performing as "Michelle"
* Michelle (German singer)
* Michelle (Scottish singer) (born 1980), Scottis ...
, portrayed with an
Afro and wearing
camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
trousers with an
assault rifle slung over her back. They are standing in the
Oval Office, with a portrait of
Osama Bin Laden hanging on the wall and an
American flag
The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...
burning in the fireplace in the background.
Many ''New Yorker'' readers saw the image as a lampoon of "The Politics of Fear", as was its title. Some of Obama's supporters as well as his presumptive Republican opponent,
Sen. John McCain, accused the magazine of publishing an incendiary cartoon whose irony could be lost on some readers. However, editor David Remnick felt the image's obvious excesses rebuffed the concern that it could be misunderstood, even by those unfamiliar with the magazine. "The intent of the cover", he said, "is to satirize the vicious and racist attacks and rumors and misconceptions about the Obamas that have been floating around in the
blogosphere and are reflected in public opinion polls. What we set out to do was to throw all these images together, which are all over the top and to shine a kind of harsh light on them, to satirize them."
In an interview on ''
Larry King Live'' shortly after the magazine issue began circulating, Obama said, "Well, I know it was ''The New Yorker''s attempt at satire... I don't think they were entirely successful with it". Obama also pointed to his own efforts to debunk the allegations portrayed in ''The New Yorker'' cover through a website his campaign set up, stating that the allegations were "actually an insult against Muslim-Americans".
Later that week, ''
The Daily Show''s
Jon Stewart continued ''The New Yorker'' cover's argument about Obama stereotypes with a piece showcasing a montage of clips containing such stereotypes culled from various legitimate news sources. ''The New Yorker'' Obama cover was later parodied by Stewart and
Stephen Colbert on the October 3, 2008, cover of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...
'' magazine, with Stewart as Obama and Colbert as Michelle, photographed for the magazine in New York City on September 18.
''New Yorker'' covers are not always related to the contents of the magazine or are only tangentially so. In this case, the article in the July 21, 2008, issue about Obama did not discuss the attacks and rumors but rather Obama's political career. The magazine later endorsed Obama for president.
This parody was most likely inspired by
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ...
host
E. D. Hill's paraphrasing of an anonymous internet comment in asking whether a gesture made by Obama and his wife Michelle was a "terrorist fist jab". Later, Hill's contract was not renewed.
2013 Bert and Ernie cover
''The New Yorker'' chose an image of
Bert and Ernie by artist Jack Hunter, entitled "Moment of Joy", as the cover of their July 8, 2013, publication, which covers the Supreme Court decisions on the
Defense of Marriage Act and
California Proposition 8.
The ''
Sesame Street'' characters have long been rumored in urban legend to be
homosexual partners, though
Sesame Workshop has repeatedly denied this, saying they are merely "puppets" and have no sexual orientation.
Reaction was mixed. Online magazine ''
Slate'' criticized the cover, which shows Ernie leaning on Bert's shoulder as they watch a television with the Supreme Court justices on the screen, saying "it's a terrible way to commemorate a major civil-rights victory for gay and lesbian couples." ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'', meanwhile, said it was "one of
he magazine'smost awesome covers of all time".
Style
''The New Yorker''s signature display typeface, used for its nameplate and headlines and the masthead above ''The Talk of the Town'' section, is Irvin, named after its creator, the designer-illustrator
Rea Irvin. The body text of all articles in ''The New Yorker'' is set in
Adobe Caslon.
One uncommonly formal feature of the magazine's in-house
style is the placement of
diaeresis marks in words with repeating
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (l ...
s—such as ''reëlected'', ''preëminent'', and ''coöperate''—in which the two vowel letters indicate separate vowel sounds. The magazine also continues to use a few spellings that are otherwise little used in American English, such as ''fuelled'', ''focussed'', ''venders'', ''teen-ager'', ''traveller'', ''marvellous'', ''carrousel'', and ''cannister''.
The magazine also spells out the names of numerical amounts, such as "two million three hundred thousand dollars" instead of "$2.3 million", even for very large figures.
Fact-checking
As far back as the 1940s, the magazine's reputation for
fact-checking was already established. However, the magazine played a role in a literary scandal and defamation lawsuit over two articles written by
Janet Malcolm in the 1990s, who wrote about
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
's legacy. Questions were raised about the magazine's fact-checking process. As of 2010, ''The New Yorker'' employs sixteen fact checkers. In July 2011, the magazine was sued for defamation in
United States district court for an article written by
David Grann on July 12, 2010,
[Dylan Byers]
"Forensic Art Expert Sues ''New Yorker'' – Author Wants $2 million for defamation over David Grann piece"
, '' Adweek'', June 30, 2011. but the case was summarily dismissed.
Today, the magazine is often identified as the leading publication for rigorous fact checking.
Readership
Despite its title, ''The New Yorker'' is read nationwide, with 53 percent of its circulation in the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas. According to Mediamark Research Inc., the average age of ''The New Yorker'' reader in 2009 was 47 (compared to 43 in 1980 and 46 in 1990). The average household income of ''The New Yorker'' readers in 2009 was $109,877 (the average income in 1980 was $62,788 and the average income in 1990 was $70,233).
According to Pew Research, 77 percent of ''The New Yorker's'' audience hold left-of-center political values, while 52 percent of those readers hold "consistently liberal" political values.
List of books about ''The New Yorker''
* ''Ross and The New Yorker'' by Dale Kramer (1951)
* ''The Years with Ross'' by
James Thurber (1959)
* ''Ross, The New Yorker and Me'' by
Jane Grant (1968)
* ''
Here at The New Yorker'' by
Brendan Gill (1975)
* ''About the New Yorker and Me'' by
E.J. Kahn
Ely Jacques Kahn Jr. (December 4, 1916 – May 28, 1994) was an American writer with ''The New Yorker'' for five decades.
Biography
Born in New York City, he was the son of architect Ely Jacques Kahn, and the brother of mystery editor and antho ...
(1979)
* ''Onward and Upward: A Biography of Katharine S. White'' by Linda H. Davis (1987)
* ''At Seventy: More about The New Yorker and Me'' by
E. J. Kahn (1988)
* ''Katharine and E. B. White: An Affectionate Memoir'' by Isabel Russell (1988)
* ''The Last Days of The New Yorker'' by Gigi Mahon (1989)
* ''The Smart Magazines: Fifty Years of Literary Revelry and High Jinks at Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, Life, Esquire, and the Smart Set by George H. Douglas'' (1991)
* ''Genius in Disguise: Harold Ross of the New Yorker'' by Thomas Kunkel (1997)
* ''Here But Not Here: My Life with William Shawn and The New Yorker'' by
Lillian Ross (1998)
* ''Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker: The Invisible Art of Editing'' by
Ved Mehta (1998)
* ''Some Times in America: And a Life in a Year at The New Yorker'' by Alexander Chancellor (1999)
* ''The World Through a Monocle: The New Yorker at Midcentury'' by Mary F. Corey (1999)
* ''About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made'' by
Ben Yagoda (2000)
* ''Covering the New Yorker: Cutting-Edge Covers from a Literary Institution'' by
Françoise Mouly (2000)
* ''Defining New Yorker Humor'' by Judith Yaross Lee (2000)
* ''Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker'', by
Renata Adler (2000)
* ''Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker's Harold Ross'' edited by Thomas Kunkel (2000; letters covering the years 1917 to 1951)
* ''New Yorker Profiles 1925–1992: A Bibliography'' compiled by Gail Shivel (2000)
* ''NoBrow: The Culture of Marketing – the Marketing of Culture'' by John Seabrook (2000)
* ''Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker'' by David Remnick and Henry Finder (2002)
* ''Christmas at The New Yorker: Stories, Poems, Humor, and Art'' (2003)
* ''A Life of Privilege, Mostly'' by Gardner Botsford (2003)
* ''Maeve Brennan: Homesick at The New Yorker'' by Angela Bourke (2004)
* ''Better than Sane'' by Alison Rose (2004)
* ''Let Me Finish'' by
Roger Angell (Harcourt, 2006)
* ''The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker'' by Janet Groth (2012)
* ''My Mistake: A Memoir'' by
Daniel Menaker (2013)
* ''Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen'' by
Mary Norris (2015)
* ''Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber and the Golden Age of The New Yorker'' by
Thomas Vinciguerra (2015)
* ''Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist'' by
Michael Maslin (2016)
Films about ''The New Yorker''
In ''
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'', a film about the
Algonquin Round Table starring
Jennifer Jason Leigh as
Dorothy Parker,
Sam Robards portrays founding editor Harold Ross trying to drum up support for his fledgling publication.
The magazine's former editor,
William Shawn, is portrayed in ''
Capote
Capote may refer to:
People
* Capote Band of Utes, a branch of the Ute people
* Truman Capote, an American author, screenwriter, playwright, and actor
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''Capote'' (film), a 2005 biographical film starring Philip S ...
'' (2005), ''
Infamous'' (2006) and ''
Hannah Arendt'' (2012).
The 2015 documentary ''Very Semi-Serious'', produced by Redora Films, presents a behind-the-scenes look at the cartoons of ''The New Yorker''.
List of films about ''The New Yorker''
* ''
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'' (Fine Line Features, 1994, 126 minutes)
* ''Joe Gould's Secret'' (USA Films, 2000, 104 minutes)
* ''James Thurber: The Life and Hard Times'' (First Run Features, 2000, 57 minutes)
* ''Top Hat and Tales: Harold Ross and the Making of the New Yorker'' (Carousel Film and Video, 2001, 47 minutes)
[Quick Vids by Gary Handman, American Libraries, May 2006.]
* ''Very Semi-Serious'' (Redora Films, 2015, 83 minutes)
* ''
The French Dispatch'' (Searchlight Pictures, 2021, 103 minutes)
* ''
Spiderhead'' (Grand Electric, 2022, 107 minutes)
See also
*
List of ''The New Yorker'' contributors
*
The New Yorker Festival
* ''
The New Yorker Radio Hour'', a radio program carried by public radio stations
Explanatory notes
References
External links
''The New Yorker'' official websiteA Guided Tour Through ''The New Yorker''* Boxer, Sarah
''The New York Times'', February 14, 2000.
"How to Submit Cartoons to ''The New Yorker''''New Yorker'' 1950–1955 album''New Yorker'' Fiction Database 1925–2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Yorker, The
1925 comics debuts
1925 establishments in New York City
Comics magazines published in the United States
Condé Nast magazines
Culture of New York City
Investigative journalism
Literary magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1925
Magazines published in New York City
News magazines published in the United States
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service winners
Weekly magazines published in the United States