Marzorati In The Driver's Seat

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May 1, 2004

Byline: JEFF BERCOVICI

Gerald Marzorati occupies one of the more high-profile posts in magazine journalism, but he has attracted scant notice since taking over as editor of The New York Times Magazine last September. Maybe that's because his predecessor, Adam Moss, upstaged him by jumping to the helm of rival New York magazine. No matter. Marzorati, who has been with the Times Magazine since 1994, says he doesn't need the limelight - just his iPod.

Folio: Tell our readers something about you that people wouldn't necessarily expect of the editor of the Times Magazine.

Marzorati: My moonlighting job for the whole time until I became the editor was writing about popular music. My favorite story was a piece on a band called Sigur Ros, from Iceland. I saw them at Radio City, I saw them at Bowery Ballroom, I saw them open for Radiohead in Copenhagen, which was great. And I saw them recording in their studio when I went to Iceland. I spend a lot of time commuting on the train listening to music that is mostly listened to by the kids of my fellow commuters.

Folio: What kinds of changes will we see now that you're running the show?

Marzorati: One of the great things about this place is it's very much run as a non-hierarchical editorial enterprise. I know a lot of people say that and really don't mean it, but I mean it, and I think Adam meant it too. It's very easy in the media to focus on just the editor, as if the editor's bringing a startlingly new vision to a given magazine. But I really do believe what a lot of these management theorists and computer world entrepreneurs believed in the 1990s - that there really is this kind of swarming, bubbling-up-from-below moment that we're living in. Young editors want to feel an ownership stake in this magazine, and I want them to feel that.

Folio: How might we expect to see the magazine change going forward?

Marzorati: This is a magazine that's a lot about continuity. Things will change, but Bill Keller, the executive editor, wasn't looking for an overhaul. They were looking for its continuing evolution, which I'm committed to.

The first place you're going to see real change, starting in August, is in what we call the Part Two's, which are the eight supplemental issues we do every year. Two are devoted to women's fashion and two to men's fashion. Two that were formerly devoted to home design will now go beyond home interiors to all areas of design. A fourth Part Two magazine called Style & Entertaining will now be called simply Living. It will be an attempt to do a great living magazine in a sophisticated, thoughtful way that will appeal to New York Times readers, who are very successful, professional people, and by and large, affluent.

Folio: The Times Magazine , with its long, thoughtful articles, represents an idea of magazine publishing that runs counter to the prevailing trends in design and magazine editing. Is that something that you feel as a pressure on the way you edit?

Marzorati: I don't have any fear that there are readers out there saying: 'I wish these pieces were shorter.' But every issue should be like a great meal. You should have appetizers and you should have your plate of cookies at the end. A magazine should offer a variety of visual and reading experience. I'm a firm believer that magazines are pleasure vehicles. They're something you take to the beach, or take into the bath, or take to bed with you. They're a tactile experience that you have, and you want to flip through it and see great pictures and have your eyes rest on a great pull quote. But when you're ready to, you want to immerse yourself more slowly in a long narrative piece. We're the spot in the Sunday Times where you can have that long, deep immersion.

Folio: To what extent do you consider the Times Magazine as a New York publication?

Marzorati: I actually consider it a national magazine based in New York. I think at this point probably half the readers of the Sunday Times are outside the metropolitan area. We're dealing with international subjects and national subjects that I think you wouldn't deal with in a city magazine. That said, I think all great magazines come from a place. They don't just exist out in the atmosphere somewhere. This is definitely a magazine that comes from Manhattan. A lot of our readers want to know what Manhattan is thinking and feeling, what's the creative energy there, and I think you get that in our cultural coverage. There's a sense that this is a magazine being put out by sophisticated Manhattanites.

Folio: The Times has become fairly magazine-like in many sections. How does the magazine differentiate itself from the paper?

Marzorati: My job is to complement the paper. The paper is the magazine's delivery system, and I think it's a great delivery system as opposed to newsstand. I don't have to be wrangling a tired celebrity for my cover every month. I don't have to fill the cover with endless numbers and punchy words that are supposed to attract newsstand readers' attention. I know I'm reaching people who want the magazine.