At one point in that documentary from director Marshall Curry, which I had the opportunity to screen early, editor David Remnick marvels: “The New Yorker is a miracle, ok?” That’s because it, like Harper’s, has somehow managed to survive the unrelenting carnage of the digital era, while also remaining as meticulous as ever in its fact-checking, as droll in its cartoons, and stylishly metropolitan for everyone but the “old lady in Dubuque” (more on that in a moment). In its original 1925 mission statement, meanwhile, The New Yorker co-founder Harold Ross famously declared that the magazine “is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque.” The statement wasn’t intended as an insult — rather, a kind of shorthand describing the magazine’s posture toward sophistication and an appreciation of life in New York. Its visual style was just as essential to what the magazine became, with the first cover introducing the character that would become a mascot for the publication: Eustace Tilley, the well-dressed dandy in a top hat observing a butterfly through his monocle.
Author: Andy Meek, Senior Contributor, Andy Meek, Senior Contributor https://www.forbes.com/sites/andymeek/
Published at: 2025-11-13 21:48:14
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