As I’m sure you’ve heard, America lost a publishing titan this weekend. No, not Hugh Hefner. I’m talking about S.I. Newhouse Jr., who died Sunday at the age of 89.
Unlike Hefner, Newhouse left behind more than a mansion pool/petrie dish and a few barrels of unused Viagra. Newhouse gave life to dozens of magazines that continue to shape the culture. The New Yorker. Vogue. Vanity Fair. Architectural Digest. These publications somehow managed to dig their fingernails into the digital wall of irrelevancy and insolvency, and if not regained profitability at least kept an intelligent, thoughtful seat at the national table.
Newhouse famously gave his editors carte blanche when it came to chasing stories and developing narrative. He brought in immense writing talents such as Salman Rushdie, Michael Lewis, Malcolm Gladwell, John Updike and Seymour Hersh. These publications also achieved something their digital-based descendants never will; these were true identity brands. Be seen reading Architectural Digest or Wired (another Conde Nast creation), and you were noticed. This was someone to be taken seriously.
Playboy and Hefner managed to wheeze themselves decades past their collective sell-by dates. And yes, I have it on great authority that Playboy had great articles. But please, take a moment to reserve adequate space on the big coffee table in the sky for S.I.