Posted by
Bill Cherry on Wednesday, July 02, 2008 10:36:32 AM
Perhaps you read that Clay Felker died. He was 82. And he was the husband of the writer Gaul Sheehy. As a magazine editor and idea man, he had a serious and long lasting influence over the path journalism took.
Mr. Felker’s most interesting brainchild was the magazine New York.
And New York became “indispensable in the 1960s and '70s for those craving the latest on the city's social scene, inside knowledge of its business and politics, and consumer tips from its endless ‘best of’ lists.”
Editors across the country adopted his formula along with “co-founder Milton Glaser's bold layout designs and the equally non-traditional "new journalism" writing style of contributors like Tom Wolfe.” I suppose every big city has its interpretation of New York magazine.
One of the most successful clones is D Magazine (as in Big D) which was founded in 1974 by Wick Allison and Jim Atkinson along with Stanley Marcus’ daughter as a journalist and investor. It was that wedge that encouraged Mr. Marcus to send a letter to the Neiman-Marcus charge card holders suggesting they subscribe to D Magazine, even before its first issue was ever written and printed.
Unlike New York, D has chosen to market its endorsements – you buy a certain ad, and what comes with it is the assurance that you will be picked by D as The Best Realtor, The Best Gynecologist, The Best Electrician…you get the idea. And subscribers by the thousands assume The Best has some academic research behind it.
After all, those articles are framed and hung in the recipients’ offices and businesses all over Dallas. And the barbeque joint posts that it was chosen as the best with large plastic letters on its back-lighted marquee.
So D Magazine and its sub-magazines now do a great deal toward influencing the taste and commerce of Dallas. And I suspect it has made Mr. Allison and maybe Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Marcus’ daughter wealthy.
All because Clay Felker thought up the idea and Stanley Marcus, the self-proclaimed and promoted King of Taste, endorsed it.
I honestly think it's wonderful!