The Last Great Magazine
Posted by TFG on April 24th, 2007
The Atlantic appears to be circling the drain:
The Atlantic magazine has had some changes on the masthead. The loss of the late Michael Kelly was a huge blow. More recently, it’s gained Andrew Sullivan, lost Mark Steyn in a disagreement, gained Matthew Yglesias, still has Mark Bowden.
I wish them all luck, and that cancels most of the interest in that magazine I once had.
Andrew Sullivan? Matthew Yglesias? Dear sweet merciful Lord in Heaven. They probably think that’s balance.
Shows how little I’ve been paying attention. I’ve not had time to read them cover-to-cover in about six months, and I never go by their web operation. Bidness, you know.
Via Craig…
Yglesias???? Didn’t he just get out of college? Call me when you get a Steve Graham on board.
April 24th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
As can happen when a great, visionary editor is lost, the magazine has slowly but surely evolved into what it was before Kelly showed up — which, frankly, was about 75% crap.
It was a cheap subscription, but inertia is about all that keeps it coming these days. There aren’t many must-reads.
April 24th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
I never really experienced it ante-Kelly, so I have a level of expectation. They have failed to meet it, as you so gracefully note. I shan’t be cutting a check for another 12 or 24 months of Sully and Matty-level slop.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I liked the mix of writers they used to bring together. Steyn, Hitchens, Bowden, Kaplan, Stuart Taylor. But now they replacing many of them with the same old same old.
Isn’t there a Micahael Keaton movie where he copies himself and then his copies make copies? That’s what Yglesias reminds me of. Kinsley was pretty interesting back at Harper’s in 1983. Xerox Michael Kinsley, then xerox that xerox. Do it one more time. Voila! You have the Atlantic’s new blogger.