From Publishers Weekly
to know it still exist after its purchase by S. I. Newhouse in 1985 and last year's dismissal of long-time editor William Shawn and his replacement by Robert Gottlieb? New York magazine writer Mahon doesn't answer baldly, nor does she explore conditions under Gottlieb, but her tone makes clear her sentiment that changes that have occurred were overdue. Since few editorial staff members agreed to be interviewed by Mahon, while the business folk were forthcoming, we're shown a troubled New Yorker from the perspective of the finance, advertising and circulation departments, a not uninteresting focus. But before tracking events leading to Shawn's firing, the author bogs down her otherwise tense tale by recapping at length the magazine's familiar history. Then, in covering more recent days, she doesn't entirely trust readers to catch crucial points, so she parenthetically calls attention to preceding significant sentences, or relates the same gossip more than onceas, for example, scuttlebut about intimacy between Shawn and writer Lillian Ross. With more journalistic discipline, Mahon could have produced a less discursive and no less readable or controversial expose.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Money being made hand over fist, stock deals, greenmailing, and corporate raiders are not what come to mind when one thinks of the New Yorker . But here's a book that zeros in on the business end while touching on the editorial workings of this exalted magazine, whose financial successes have matched its literary ones. It was a place where advertisers came, often begging, to place ads. When S.I. Newhouse bought the magazine in 1987, those on the business side drew hefty compensations, whereas writers and editorsdue to editor William Shawn's refusal to name any of them for a stock grant plansaw nothing. Although the text would have benefited from a stronger edit, Mahon presents an absorbing account of events leading up to the purported last days. Michelle Lodge, New York
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
