The Endorsement: Esquire Editor Loves Cincinnati, 5280

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By Matt Haber

September 4, 2008 | 9:13 a.m.

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Are magazines dead? Not to Esquire editor David Granger, who talked to Forbes' James Brady on the occasion of his magazine's 75th anniversary. (Remember that lite brite cover? It's coming!)

When asked by Mr. Brady if the golden age of magazines had passed, Mr. Granger responds:

I completely reject that idea... Some of the best magazine journalism I know of is running right now in Esquire and The New Yorker and New York magazine and a lot of others. Cincinnati has a great [local] magazine, and there's a new one in Denver called 5280, for the city's altitude in feet, and there are plenty more.

In 2005, The Observer looked at 5280 (which has actually been around 15 years) when New York transplant writer-editor Maximillian Potter was nominated for two National Magazine Awards. (It should also be noted with pride that Cincinnati Magazine is edited by Observer alumni Jay Stowe.)

A quibble with Mr. Granger, though. In lauding Esquire he told Mr. Brady, "Norman Mailer wrote for Esquire. We published his 'White Negro' in the magazine."

Actually, according to Mailer biographer Carl Rollyson, 'The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster' ran in Dissent in the fall 1957 issue. But Mr. Mailer did write some amazing stuff for Esquire, including his 1960 Democratic Convention dispatch 'Superman Comes to the Supermarket' (even though the editors changed his title to 'Supermart' in the magazine).