New Yorker Magazine

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 11:03am on Monday, February 1st, 2010

The February 8, 2010 issue of the New Yorker Magazine features several remembrances of the late J.D. Salinger -- including those penned by John Seabrook, A.M. Homes and Salinger's close friend Lillian Ross -- as well as a slide show of Salinger snapshots.

Seabrook's remembrance recalled Movie Night at the Salinger house:

"Twenty-four years ago this summer, my girlfriend and I were visiting my parents in Vermont, and my mother, who was conservative in such matters, didn’t want us to stay together in my room. My girlfriend thought that that was silly and that I was being a wimp for going along with the maternal regime, considering that we lived together in New York. My father was keeping out of it. It was not a happy household.

So when my college friend Matt invited us to his dad’s house, in Cornish, New Hampshire, about half an hour away, to watch an old movie, all parties were relieved. However, as we wound our way along the dirt roads leading up from the Connecticut River, my girlfriend and I became tense all over again, for a different reason. We were both young writers, and we were about to meet J. D. Salinger.

The house was built into the hillside, and we entered through what seemed like the basement, walking through a concrete-and-cinder-block passageway with a rocky dirt floor. In the kitchen, a tall, slender man with a full head of graying hair, wearing a white shirt and a dark vest, was pouring popcorn into a Hamilton Beach popcorn popper. He had a long, ascetic face, large ears, shy but curious eyes, and a wide-lipped mouth, “a mouth with a lot of Capricorn in it,” as he later said of my mouth, by which he meant, I think, that it had an openness but also a resolve in the way the lips pressed together at the corners. We could see that he was just as nervous as we were, and that made us feel more at ease.

Later, when we knew each other better, and Jerry felt comfortable enough to be himself around us, I got to see what a sweet, swell guy he was. We played golf on the nine-hole course in Windsor, Vermont, and he wouldn’t let us keep score. He played with bamboo clubs and cursed like a sailor when he hit a bad shot, which was often, though not as often as we did (we were secretly keeping score, so we knew). A few years later, I spent a wonderful afternoon with him going around San Francisco’s Chinatown, looking at exotic mushrooms, roots, and herbs. Jerry had an encyclopedic knowledge of mushrooms, and often travelled under the alias Mr. Boletus, which was one of his favorite varieties.

But, on the occasion of our first meeting, everyone was wary; we quickly left him in the kitchen and hustled into the main part of the house, while Jerry (as we awkwardly called him) saw to the popcorn."

The full story:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/02/08/100208ta_talk_seabrook

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 4:07pm on Monday, December 14th, 2009

New Yorker Opts For Fact Over Fiction, WWD Media reported on December 14, 2009:

"Instead of publishing its second fiction issue of the year, The New Yorker will introduce a new “world changers” special issue this week on newsstands. “I think one is enough for the time being,” said editor David Remnick of dropping a fiction issue. “We’ll still continue to publish fiction every week. I think we’re one of the last magazines that does.”

Advertisers appear to prefer the new idea. Total ad pages for “world changers” is almost 69, compared with 45 for last year’s winter fiction issue."

The full story:
http://www.wwd.com/media-news#/article/media-news/fashion-memopad/fact-not-fiction-marissa-mayer-in-paris-changes-at-martha-stewart-2394937

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 8:05am on Monday, December 14th, 2009

New Yorker, Others Raising Cover Prices In 2010, Mediaweek reported on December 13, 2009:

"Condé Nast is raising cover prices on The New Yorker, Golf Digest and Teen Vogue in 2010, having already done so at Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler and Lucky this fall.

Hearst is lifting the cover price of Good Housekeeping, Esquire and Veranda and is considering the same for Country Living and other titles. Wenner Media quietly raised prices on Men’s Journal and Rolling Stone in the fall. And Meredith is eyeing newsstand price increases at flagship Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle and Traditional Home, while Rodale is looking at doing the same at its health/fitness titles.

“It kind of depends on the brand,” said John McCarthy, senior vp, customer marketing at Rodale. “If we’re seeing natural demand, we have the opportunity to be more aggressive with pricing.”

The full story:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3i719dc07a203bf2ec0bbfd13928d06d18

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 7:42am on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

The New Yorker Could Be The Last Magazine Standing

The New York Observer reported on November 10, 2009:

"The magazine has gotten a little younger (witness the hiring of Ryan Lizza, Nick Trautwein, Ariel Levy, and 26-year-old managing editor Amelia Lester). But one thing has stayed the same: the sheer size of the magazine’s editorial staff.

“In order to do what we do, we need a sizable staff,” said editor in chief David Remnick in an interview. “We don’t publish 10 issues a year, or 12 issues a year. We publish 46.”

“If The New Yorker is going to be worthy of the name,” he continued, “we can’t do it with a minuscule staff.”

The full story:
http://www.observer.com/2009/media/last-magazine-standing