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Inside Outside
What can you say about an editor who stays at one magazine for 17 years -- during which time it publishes first-rate writers, generally flourishes, wins prizes and makes scads of money? One thing you can surely say is: It wasn't much of a surprise when Outside editor Mark Bryant announced his departure last week, along with that of art director Susan Casey, who is also Bryant's live-in girlfriend. "After 17 years, I think he got a little restless," says Outside's owner, Larry Burke, adding, "I just love the guy. I always will. We'll be friends forever. " Burke's love gush is not surprising. During Bryant's tenure, Outside, based in Santa Fe, N.M., garnered a record three National Magazine Awards for general excellence and published an impressive list of distinguished writers including Ian Frazier, E. Annie Proulx, James Salter, Robert Stone, Philip Gourevitch and Bryant's pals Jon Krakauer and Tim Cahill. Bryant says he thought about leaving last spring after Outside nabbed its third National Magazine Award. "When you're around this long and risk getting punch drunk, you want to pick your time right." He stuck around, he says, to see a few Outside deals fall into place, notably a large publishing deal involving an actual Outside book imprint with a New York publisher, which will be announced in a few weeks. Burke managed to maintain an affectionate tone while discussing tension with Casey over Women's Outside, a recent Outside venture, launched last summer. Casey, who co-edited the premiere issue of the Outside offshoot, reportedly wasn't pleased when the second issue (due out this spring) was taken out of her hands; many Outside insiders believe bad feelings surrounding the incident may have helped facilitate the pair's decision to go. Burke says he wishes he had communicated directly with Casey, rather than through Bryant. "I'm sure I hurt her feelings. She thought I took [Women Outside] away from her. I didn't mean to do that. I should have talked to her more," Burke says. Outside insiders say they wouldn't be surprised if Casey plans a new women's outdoor magazine designed to run Women Outside into the ground. Bryant's immediate plans are unknown, although he has been courted over the years by magazine pooh-bahs anxious to benefit from his magic touch. He's off to New York for a series of meetings he refused to discuss. Burke, meanwhile, is talking to staff people as well as looking outside the magazine, but he doesn't seem to be in a big hurry -- in fact, he's making passing remarks about "destiny." He shouldn't have any problem attracting a top candidate. Although some Outsiders grumble about the long, underappreciated, inadequately remunerated hours they spend toiling at the magazine, everyone agrees that in an age when magazines are increasingly indistinguishable, Outside has been a breath of fresh air. Janeane, we hardly knew ye A piece on Janeane Garofalo in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine fashion issue focuses on the star's problems with fashion dictates, particularly those that mandate teensy waistlines and waify physiques. This powerful statement of resistance to the tyranny of fashion codes was undercut, however, by the accompanying photo of a string-bean model intended to look like -- Janeane Garofalo! A madcap prank? The revenge of a diet-pill-popping anti-"Beauty Myth" zealot lurking in the Times' fashion department? Neither the Times nor Garofalo was available for comment. New editor promises to ruffle feathers of Mother Jones faithful Mother Jones has at last found an editor -- Roger Cohn, former executive editor of Audubon Magazine. Judging by his comments on the magazine's political slant, Cohn's MoJo may bear little resemblance to the left-wing magazine that has been limping along for some time. "I don't want the magazine to toe one ideological line. I'm a journalist, not a political activist," says Cohn. The editor, who cut his reportorial teeth at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked as an urban affairs and environmental writer, says he wants to return Mother Jones to its investigative-reporting roots. Interestingly, rather than looking upon Cohn as an apolitical usurper, many of those connected to Mother Jones welcome the change he heralds -- a development that says as much about the changing climate for political journals as it does about Cohn and Mother Jones. "Cohn was a good choice for Mother Jones," says Douglas Foster, who edited Mother Jones from 1987 to 1992. "It shows the magazine knows it has to do some work on its basics." Foster cites Cohn's 11-year experience as an investigative reporter for the Inquirer, then one of the nation's preeminent investigative papers. More important, Foster points to Cohn's success at converting Audubon from a niche publication to a more general-interest magazine. "After years of a death dance between journalism and politics, the two realms embracing each other in a race to below the gutter," says Foster, "this is just the sort of conversion political magazines need." Deirdre English, who edited Mother Jones from 1980 to 1986, also says it's a good move for Mother Jones to concentrate on strong, hard-hitting reported pieces rather than commentary. Mark Dowie, an investigative reporter whose contributions helped establish Mother Jones' early reputation and who later served as publisher, commends Cohn for pissing off the top Audubon brass. "Audubon's readers are old, they're Republican, they're bird watchers," says Dowie. "Roger got to be a bit too much for them, which is a good reason why he should be the editor of Mother Jones." Dowie cheers Cohn's success at sprinkling salt on top Audubon tails with hard-hitting anti-corporate investigative pieces. (In fact, what really got Cohn in trouble was a scheduled Tom Wicker column in 1996 about President Clinton's environmental policy; Cohn's relations with the magazine soured after the president of the Audubon Society killed the piece.) Not everyone is twittering with joy, however. Some harder-core leftists see Cohn's ascent as yet another indication that the once-fire-breathing magazine has lost its moorings. Author and Mother Jones contributor Marc Cooper says, "To say Mother Jones made its name in the early '70s with investigative reporting is a rewriting of history. Mother Jones did expose things like the dangers of the Ford Pinto, but it did so as a part of a political agenda, a critique of mainstream society ... Without knowing much about Roger Cohn, I would say it sounds like the magazine is going to the birds." Cohn, who says he hardly saw Mother Jones in recent years, would like to bring some of the writers he worked with at Audubon, including Ian Frazier, Peter Matthiessen, Tom McGuane, E. Annie Proulx and Verlyn Klinkenborg, to Mother Jones. "I'd like to reach out for the best," he says. "I'd be delighted if Scott Armstrong, Sy Hersh or Bob Woodward would write for us." If not, maybe Cohn can ask the New York Times where he can find some skinny models who look like Armstrong, Hersh and Woodward.
Susan Lehman's Media Circus appears every Thursday in Salon. |
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