The New Yorker | The New York Observer

ASME Finalists Announced

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:24:25 -0500

The American Society of Magazine Editors announced their Ellie award finalists this morning. Unsurprisingly, National Geographic, New York, and The New Yorker racked up the most nominations.

But please join us in congratulating first-time nominee Garden and Gun, our favorite magazine that we never knew...

The Great American Text

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:04:12 -0500

In 2008, Dana Goodyear wrote a story for The New Yorker about a trend in Japan relating to how young adults were telling stories: They were using Web-enabled cell phones to write short stories, poems, even novels.

“The medium—unfiltered, unedited—is revolutionary,” she wrote, “opening the closed ranks of the literary world to anyone who owns a mobile phone.”

After her story ran, she noticed excitement in the publishing world back home about the idea. Lots of...

Remnick to Readers: Seriously, Just Pay, We're Pretty Great

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:01:53 -0500

New Yorker editor David Remnick spoke this week at Columbia Journalism School as part of the Delacorte lecture series. On the subject of the magazine's cost, he had this to say:

"There's no doubt to me that the business of practically giving away the magazine to jack up circulation has no future," Remnick said. "Forty-two bucks for 47 issues. I think you can pay more than a buck for the magazine."

The New Yorker's current subcription...

New Yorker Fiction Issue Replaced By 'World Changers' Issue

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:49:36 -0500

The New Yorker has decided to cut its second yearly fiction issue, Women's Wear Daily reported today.

“I think one is enough for the time being,” David Remnick told WWD. “We’ll still continue to publish fiction every week. I think we’re one of the last magazines that does.”

Instead of the fiction issue, the magazine will be publishing a special on "world changers," like a technology initiative in China. Advertisers apparently "prefer the new idea;" ad...

Time Inc.'s Squires Assembles Team of Rivals to Harness Digital Media

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:31:18 -0500

Some of the magazine industry’s biggest names are on the verge of forming a new company that would allow them to take the digital future into their own hands.

The company would make up one of the biggest alliances among rival publishers ever formed in print media, with Time Inc., Condé Nast and Hearst all expected to join, houses that together publish more than 50 magazines, including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time,...

The Cubicle Queue: The New Yorker's Funny People, Everyday New Yorkers, and More!

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:54:01 -0500

Tired of clicking around YouTube and iTunes for online videos of substance? Search no more! The Observer has your weekly handy guide to what's worth watching on the Web.

One in 8 Million series on NYTimes.com - How many times have you walked around the city streets wondering about the people who pass you by every day--the pretty girl who sits next to you on the subway or the scruffy guy who orders...

The Cubicle Queue: Hitchcock Speaks, Lou Dobbs' Greatest Hits, and More.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:33:45 -0500

Tired of clicking around YouTube and iTunes for online videos of substance? Search no more! The Observer has your weekly handy guide to what's worth watching on the Web.

How to draw a New Yorker cover - Speaking of the last magazine standing, artist Jorge Colombo sketched another one of his New Yorker covers with the iPhone Brushes application.

Lou Dobbs' most scandalous moments on HuffPo - Now that he's fleeing from...

How Many Staff Writers Does It Take to Make The New Yorker?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:58:46 -0500

The answer seems to be 66--a count that encompasses everyone from Malcolm Gladwell to contributors who've only written a piece or two in the last few years.

The magazine has never published a masthead, but John Koblin pieces one together in this week's Observer. In addition to those 66 staff writers, there's an elaborate editorial tower, with positions like "Deputy Fiction Editor," "Senior Fiction Editor/Staff Writer," "Assistant Fiction Editor," and "Fiction Staff." But it's all part...

The Last Magazine Standing

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:53:38 -0500

Magazines are shrinking—smaller staffs, fewer writers, fewer stories written per writer, fewer words for each story—but The New Yorker continues to look, remarkably, about the same as it did five years ago, even as its parent company has cut hundreds of jobs and folded a handful of titles in the past few weeks.

The New Yorker has never published a masthead. But four and a half...

'Who Tweets?'

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:41:09 -0400

This week, the Magazine Publishers of America held its first Magazine Innovation Summit. The Observer's Chloe Malle attended the "Decline and Rise of Magazine Journalism" panel, which was moderated by Slate's Jacob Weisberg and included The New Yorker's Susan Morrison and Gawker's Nick Denton.

Denton obligingly played the destroyer of received wisdom. Weisberg asked about how Gawker fact-checks:

“We don’t,” Mr. Denton replied flatly. “We aim to get the truth over time. The verification model is...

Trautwein Gets Senior New Yorker Job, Plays Saxophone

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:09:28 -0400

Nick Trautwein has been hired as a senior editor at The New Yorker, reports John Koblin. The magazine got special dipensation to break their hiring freeze and fill Emily Eakin's vacancy after she left for medical reasons.

David Remnick offered the following testimonial to Trautwein's merits:

"Anyone whose resume includes playing sax in Chubby Checker's touring band has got to have something going on. And from everything I have seen, Nick Trautwein, really does. He's worked...

Nick Trautwein is A New Senior Editor at The New Yorker

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:09:28 -0400

Nick Trautwein, an editor at Penguin Press, has just been hired as a senior editor at The New Yorker.

He is replacing Emily Eakin, who is leaving the magazine for medical reasons. As we reported a few weeks ago, The New Yorker had to get a green light from the higher-ups at Conde Nast to fill the position since there is a hiring freeze, and it was granted. (They also got permission to hire Amelia...

Items! David Remnick Scores Blago, S.N.L. Makes More Blind Jokes

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:16:16 -0400

Talk of the Town is over-pegging, say the Shadow Editors.

That Google books settlement is delayed.

Charlotte Gainsbourg says of Antichrist that she had porn-star body-double and found Lars von Trier to be like dad Serge Gainsbourg.

It was only a matter of time: S.N.L. again makes fun of David Paterson.

Here's One of Bright Star director Jane Campion’s early shorts, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1986.

Barack Obama...

McKinsey Proffers Pie Graphs: Several Conde Mags to Cut "25-ish Percent"

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:56:03 -0400

After a summer of mad speculation at 4 Times Square, Condé Nast editors and publishers are beginning to finally learn what life is going to be like in a post-McKinsey world. In the last few days, Condé Nast executives armed with McKinsey-branded binders have started to deliver budget targets for 2010 to editors and publishers.

The execs told representatives from Details, Traveler and Glamour that they needed to cut their budgets next...

The New Yorker Is Hiring

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:00:34 -0400

Senior editor Emily Eakin is leaving The New Yorker, and the magazine is looking for a replacement. (Ms. Eakin is leaving due to ongoing medical issues.) The magazine is looking outside the organization to fill the job, and it has received a green light from Condé Nast executives to make the hire, despite the fact that Condé Nast is in the middle of a hiring freeze and in the heart of a budget crunch.

Even...