Yesterday, the Huffington Post ran a story about a survey of what journalism graduates make in their first year of work these days: about $30,000. This is a sad comment on the state of journalism, which has become devalued, but it’s also ironic that it appeared in HuffPo, … [Read more...]
The Conde Nast elevator
This is a story told at an open mic last week for San Francisco’s Porchlight storytelling series. The theme was “fashion.” I used to write for Vogue. Since I was a freelancer on the West Coast writing about health and medicine, I didn’t have to worry very often about being … [Read more...]
Media exaggerates Mexico dangers
I’m in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a charming and peaceful colonial town, which these days seems like a ghost town. The reason is that the U.S. media have scared people away. You can’t go on Fox News without hearing shrill and macabre reports about all the violence in Mexico, … [Read more...]
Interview in Smith Magazine
This interview with Cathy Alter (author of a funny memoir called Up for Renewal, on spending a year living from the advice of women's magazines, answers, among other things, the question of why I wrote An Italian Affair in the second person, and All Over the Map in the first. … [Read more...]
Gourmet readers want a real gourmet magazine, not junk food.
The Times ran a story today about the demise of Gourmet magazine and how its readers aren’t flocking to Bon Appetit or other cooking magazines as predicted. I'm not surprised that loyal readers, who have followed the magazine and the brand since 1941, aren't switching. Gourmet … [Read more...]