When editors were gods

With friends like these ...

"[O]nly a seriously disturbed person would sincerely wish to have an editor for a friend..." — author George V. Higgins in his 1990 book "On Writing."

Every day on every page

Can you describe what it means to be a successful editor-in-chief?

“I think the most important thing is to have a vision for the magazine or newspaper. What is the distinctive feature of your newspaper, what do you provide that nobody else provides, and making sure that you provide that every day on every page….” — From an interview with Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, published earlier this month in the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

What do you call a magazine without an editor?

"There ain't no magazine without the editor. Anything else is not a magazine, but merely a corporation." — T. George Harris, editor of American Health magazine, quoted by Peter Jacobi in a 1988 Folio: magazine article.

His magazines were hard to discard

It as on this day (July 29) in 1913 that Joseph Thorndike, who grew up to become a managing editor of Life magazine and later editorial director and editor, respectively, of the hardcover magazines American Heritage and Horizon, was born in Peabody, Massachusetts. He died in 2005 at age 92.

Weird moments in magazine history #1

After the magazine publisher Frank Leslie died in 1880, his widow had her name legally changed to... Frank Leslie.

3 secrets of motivation, from Business Week editor Lew Young

"There are only three ways to motivate people: fear, greed, and challenge." — Lew Young, longtime editor-in-chief of Business Week, in a 1981 speech.

A magazine that tried just about everything

On this day (July 26) in 1956, The American Magazine announced that it would cease publication after 80 years, with its August issue. It had been founded in 1876 as Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly and went through several wildly different editorial incarnations in the decades that followed, including muckraking in the early 20th century and cheerleading for big business in the years leading up to the Great Depression. At the end it was more of a general-interest title, still with reported circulation of 2-plus million, but apparently not enough.  

The "Common Sense" secret of successful magazines

"The secret of success of any magazine lies in its individuality. People come to recognize it as different from the others and they do not feel that any other magazine will take its place." — Common-Sense Magazine, 1908.

The secret of success, according to the editor of Success

“Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it is yours.” — Success magazine founder and editor Orison Swett Marden

A good day for born editors

July 23 seems to be a good day to be born if you want to grow up to be a famous magazine editor. Among those born on this day: Ruth Whitney, the highly respected editor of Glamour magazine for an astonishing 31 years (born in 1928),  Albert Shaw of Review of Reviews (born in 1857), and Ben Hibbs of The Saturday Evening Post (born in 1901).

The editor who revived Scientific American

It was on this day (July 22), in 1919 that  Dennis Flanagan was born in New York. Flanagan is generally credited with reviving Scientific American magazine, which he edited for 37 years. He was elected to the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame in 1999 and died in 2005, also in New York. 

The "True" secret of successful editing

"This, I think, is the sovereign secret of successful editing: the arbitrary attitude. No boards, no committees, no surveys, no IBM machines can replace it." — Ken Purdy, onetime editor of True magazine, quoted by Theodore Peterson in his book "Magazines of the Twentieth Century," 1964.