When editors were gods

When the joke was on magazine editors, 1930 and 1934

"Magazine editors are young. Otherwise nobody could sell them the jokes that had their day 40 years ago." — The Journal and Republican, Lowville, N.Y., May 15, 1930.

Along the same lines, from the Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer, Aug. 27, 1934:

"TODAY'S WORST JOKE

"Magazine Editor (to author): I'll give you 50 cents for this joke about President Roosevelt.

"Author: What's the matter? You gave me a dollar for the same joke about President Coolidge."

 

 

Helen Gurley Brown's secret of success, or one of them anyway

"The secret of editing a successful magazine is knowing your reader. At Cosmo, we get lots of stuff submitted that's really wonderful—but not right for us. Too many magazines stray too far.  They try to get everybody, and that's not the way it works. Once you establish who you're after, you do everything to please that reader." — Helen Gurley Brown, late longtime editor of Cosmopolitan, quoted in USA Today in 1985.