Old media, new faces
READERS CAN still find joy in the midst of a flashing, beeping, electronic world: Three venerable, general interest magazines are alive and well -- or putting up a good fight -- and welcoming a new generation of editors.
Readers may quarrel with the politics or perspectives of the Atlantic Monthly, the New Republic, and The Economist. But these magazines boldly offer depth. They look at complexities, contradictions, and deceptions. It's a refreshing contrast to the flood of quick-hit news about the same famous celebrities doing the same famous things: dating, divorcing, and over- or undereating.
In April, it seemed as if Boston's culture was shrinking when the Atlantic announced it would leave this city and move to Washington. But last week, the magazine announced that it was hiring a new editor, reporter James Bennet of The New York Times. He will build on an impressive record that includes a 2002 article on war in Iraq by James Fallows that turned out to be a prescient chronicle of the crisis the United States would face once it toppled Saddam Hussein.
Franklin Foer is taking over at the New Republic, rising from inside the magazine's ranks. In the face of tough fiscal times, New Republic salaries and circulation have been cut. And the magazine sometimes makes news for its internal turmoil. But it continues to run a fine comb through Washington politics, and it mixes in cultural commentary and poetry.
With a wry, sometimes snide eye on the entire world, The Economist can seem like a bastion of the aging elite. But its appeal is evident in its circulation of more than 1 million readers, over half a million of whom live in the United States. The average reader age is 38. Last month, editor-in-chief Bill Emmott stepped down after 13 years in the job and 26 at the magazine. The next editor has yet to be chosen. But last week on WBUR's ''On Point," Emmott said he expects his successor to be ''an internal appointment," someone who will keep the magazine on course.
Although some bloggers see the demise of the ''legacy media," the dinosaur family of print journalism and network news, these three magazines are lively, triumphant old-timers. The Economist was founded in 1843, the Atlantic in 1857, and the New Republic in 1914.
At its best, magazine journalism offers readers a lively graduate school experience, more than one knew there was to know about the news of the day and the news beyond the media's daily gaze.
Whatever changes they make, this new guard of editors should commit to the tradition of thoughtful reflection about people and nations and what they are wittingly or unwittingly becoming.
