George Packer - FishbowlNY

The New Yorker Chooses 9/11 for First e-Book

Chris O'Shea — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:14:09 +0000

We’re not quite sure how much of an audience there is for e-books, but The New Yorker is certainly grabbing some attention with its first venture into the territory. The Cutline reports that the magazine’s first e-book — titled After 9/11 — will center on 9/11, and features writing that will make it attractive to readers:

[The book] includes vignettes from the magazine’s trademark ‘Talk of the Town’ section by Hendrik Hertzberg, John Updike, Jonathan Franzen, Susan Sontag, Calvin Trillin and George Packer; deeply reported features by Adam Gopnik, Seymour Hersh, Jane Mayer, Jon Lee Anderson and Steve Coll; criticism by Malcolm Gladwell; and fiction by Don DeLillo. It also includes Nicholas Schmidle‘s recent account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The New Yorker’s Deputy Editor, Pam McCarthy, said that if the book is successful, the magazine will look to do more.

After 9/11 is available for $7.99 on the Kindle or Nook.

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William Kristol is Ambivalent About His Future at the New York Times

Glynnis — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:32:43 +0000

William Kristol is apparently ambivalent about his future at the New York Times (according to Jeff Bercovici he was obviously embarrassed to be introduced at yesterday’s IFC panel as a Times columnist). Kristol, whose hiring by the Times earlier this year was met with great criticism, had this to say regarding his Times contract, which is up for renewal in January: “I’m ambivalent. It’s been fun. It’s a lot of work. I have a lot of things going on. But I haven’t really focused on it.” Uh huh, we are skeptical that anyone could truly be that ambivalent about giving up the most coveted op-ed real estate in newspapers, but maybe Kristol is trying to make a graceful-ish exit. That said, the New Yorker‘s George Packer thinks Kristol’s ambivalence is exactly why the Times should give him the boot:

The real grounds for firing Kristol are that he didn’t take his column seriously. In his year on the Op-Ed page, not one memorable sentence, not one provocative thought, not one valuable piece of information appeared under his name.

Meanwhile, back at the IFC panel (read TVNewser‘s coverage here) there were apparently some tense moments between Kristol and Pete Hamill over the Iraq War coverage. Video courtesy of TVNewser after the jump.

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Is Obama Playing Media Favorites?

Glynnis — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:43:07 +0000

A line slipped in near the end of Mike Allen‘s Politico article about the media coverage of Barack Obama‘s overseas trip, is making some waves. Per Allen: “Among those for whom there was no room was Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent of The New Yorker. The campaign, which was furious about the magazine’s satirical cover this week, cited space constraints in turning him away.” (Hmm, sort of like the time John McCain neglected to invite the NYT to his health records viewing party.) Over at Eat the Press Rachel Sklar says the decision “sends a clear — and worrisome — signal from the Obama campaign: If we don’t like it, man, will you know it.” A decision, she points out, which merely reinforces a quote made in Lizza’s (amazingly researched, though not terribly flattering) article : “[Obama] earned a reputation that “‘you’re not going to punk me, you’re not going to roll me over, you’re not going to jam me.’”

It should be noted The New Yorker was not the only one cut out of the “Trip of the Century”; 200 people applied and only 40 were allocated spots. That said, The New Yorker is hardly your average magazine. As Gawker’s Ryan Tate points out,

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