Magazine Industry Quotes

There was a time in the 1930s when magazine writers could actually make a good living. 'The Saturday Evening Post' and 'Collier's' both had three stories in each issue. These were usually entertaining, and people really went for them. But then television came along, and now of course, information technology... the new way of killing time.

Acting wasn't even in my world at all. My oldest sister worked at 'Glamour' magazine and said I should model, but I had no interest.

I like having young assistants in my office; they have energy, and I spend time with them to make sure they understand what we're doing. By investing in them, I'm investing in the magazine. All over 'Vogue,' 'Teen Vogue,' and 'Men's Vogue,' there are people who have been through not only my office but also many other offices at 'Vogue.'

When I was married, I didn't work. When I had my children, I didn't work. But before that, I'd work for Diana Vreeland at 'Harper's Bazaar.'

You look at, like, a 'People' magazine, which used to be a really good, you know, nice magazine you could go to for real stories. It wasn't like a 'Star' or an 'US Weekly' and they have somebody with plastic surgery on the cover, Heidi Montag. And it's obviously what consumers want, because why else would they be doing it?

My first day as an intern in the books department at 'Cosmopolitan' also happened to be the day the O.J. Simpson verdict was announced.

One of the things I regret is that magazines now are so lifestyle-orientated that the opportunity to do bigger projects is gone. This is a serious misjudgment on the part of magazine editors.

I produced some very good work at 'New York' magazine.

I decided to make my living as a magazine writer. And I found that it was really easy and fun.

The want of an international Copy-Right Law, by rendering it nearly impossible to obtain anything from the booksellers in the wayof remuneration for literary labor, has had the effect of forcing many of our very best writers into the service of the Magazines and Reviews.

People always say to me, 'You've really strived to redefine retail.' But the reality is, I wanted to redefine magazines.

I got a journalism degree. I started doing journalism - I interned at 'Cosmopolitan' magazine in the 1970s, which probably wasn't the best place for me, and I spent six or nine months freelancing. Anyway, I wasn't that good at it.

Magazines at some point become hostage to their own success.

A lot of the point mags are going out of business. They dropped the pay tremendously and it's all because of the internet. I used to go out once a month to LA and shoot for one week. I'd make a ton of money then come back to New York and do whatever I wanted.

I'm sure 'Cosmo' will get involved with virtual reality at some point.

I got that experience through dating dozens of men for six years after college, getting an entry level magazine job at 21, working in the fiction department at Good Housekeeping and then working as a fashion editor there as well as writing many articles for the magazine.

Hard as it is to believe, there were three magazines fighting over me. 'Newsweek' wanted to keep me, 'ESPN The Magazine' was coming into existence and wanted me, and 'SI' wanted to bring me back. Isn't that amazing? I had a choice, like a free agent.

I had almost nothing published until I had something published in 'Sports Illustrated.' I started there as a fact-checker two weeks after I got out of college and was there for almost 20 years.

Anyone who's in the magazine business thinks about advertisers when they write about something. And anyone who says they don't is a liar.

I was such a tomboy - goofy and, in my eyes, nerdy - and I never thought I would end up in modeling. I mean, you see pictures of these girls in magazines who have this incredible talent, and no one ever really thinks you can make it to that level. At least I didn't!

It's hard to get into Newsweek because, as more of our former intellectual magazines take on a pop focus, if there's no buzz, there's no interest.

When I started out in the early 1930s, there were a great many magazines that published short stories. Unfortunately, the short-story market has dwindled to almost nothing.

I was so passionate about being in the magazine industry, even when I first started at 'Mirabella.'

I interned at 'Hamptons' magazine. I was 12. I walked around with a pad and was like, 'What do you guys want for lunch?' to all the people who worked there.

I saw the end of the general magazine business at the end of the '70s, and I knew I had to move into another profession when the advertising dollar moved from magazines to television. The magazine business as we knew it was over. We were no longer the educators of the world.