Writers should be going out more.
"It’s ultimately a job about surveying the cultural smorgasbord and bringing back the choicest cuts to readers.”
Good morning everyone. I spent the weekend swimming in the ocean with my husband and sister, and I got through most of Joan Didion’s Notes to John. I’m back in the city for a few days this week (I met two readers on the 5:45am Hampton Jitney this morning), so maybe I’ll see you around.
Today’s letter includes: A Feed Me event at 5pm in East Hampton next Sunday, David protein is now selling fish, young people are talking more to their dogs than other people, and The Row’s flip flops were probably a bad purchase.
“Vanity Fair should rent Olivia Nuzzi a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont for two months and let her treat every important L.A. person to lunch; she’d write a kaleidoscopic dispatch on what Los Angeles means today.” - Michael M. Grynbaum in his interview below
Guest Lecture: Michael M. Grynbaum
This interview is part of a Feed Me feature called Guest Lecture. In this series, I introduce you all to an expert who I’m curious about, and give paid readers an opportunity to ask them anything they want. Past guests have included Keith McNally, Kareem Rahma, and Audrey Gelman.
Today, Michael M. Grynbaum answered reader questions about those Bezos-Condé rumors, what media he actually finds exciting today, and how he wrote his book Empire of the Elite which comes out TOMORROW.
If you’re in the Hamptons next Sunday at 5pm, (are we all aware that
got married at Grey Gardens?), Michael and I are hosting a small book party to discuss Empire of the Elite, and perhaps even get some answers to off-the-record questions. If you’re interested in coming, email emily@readfeedme.com
“Will Bezos buy Vogue?” - Elena
No – at least, not now. This rumor has gone viral but my reporting shows that the Newhouses aren’t rushing to sell Condé’s core assets. Si Newhouse’s brother, Donald, is in his mid-nineties and retired in New Jersey; I don’t expect any major moves until after he dies, and I hear he’s in good health. Donald, though, is the last of Si’s generation, and their descendants may have other ideas. I could see “minor” Condé titles getting picked off, but not Vogue. (The New Yorker is the absolute last thing the family would let go – they’re extremely proud to be its caretakers.) Also, the idea that Lauren Sánchez’s wedding dress photos were a quid pro quo is silly; it was a scoop that got tons of attention, and of course Vogue is going to cover the biggest society wedding of the year. Keep in mind that Anna’s father was editor of the London Evening Standard; she has a newswoman’s instincts, and ignoring Sánchez for “taste” reasons is not how a popular magazine works.
Michael had a fascinating article about the Newhouse family in NYT and how they paid top editors’ mortgages. So my question is, was this only possible because it was Newhouse family’s private money? Does he have any idea of the total amount of money that went towards employee mortgages in NYC over the years? Does getting your mortgage paid by your employer break any ethics of Journalism? Does he know of any other private family owners of American corporations that take on such extravagant costs like this? - Mitch
The “Si paid my mortgage” phenomenon is one of the most enduring parts of the Condé myth. First, go read the O.G. reporting on this from 2006 in the late, great New York Observer. The headline is perfect – “It’s Condo Nast!” – and my favorite bit is where Condé’s chief spokeswoman at the time declines to comment about her own UWS co-op, for which Condé secured the loan. Si even forgave the mortgage for his favorites after they left the company, which meant their exit package included a Manhattan apartment. I interviewed one editor of a B-tier early ’90s magazine in her drop-dead Sutton House co-op with East River views; Condé let her keep it and she never left.
When you think about it, powerful CEOs get the equivalent of this perk all the time. The WSJ reported that Skydance will cover expenses for Shari Redstone’s “Central Park-area apartment in New York City for the next few years” as a condition of buying Paramount. What’s cool and enviable about Condé is that creatives got these perks: magazine editors and even star writers like The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik. I do think the fact that Condé/Advance is private made it possible; Wall Street wouldn’t have loved these line items on a quarterly report. I don’t have a sum total – surely tens of millions of dollars were spent in aggregate – but I’d caution that the phenomenon tapered off after the mid-2000s, when NYC real estate prices really skyrocketed.
“I do think editors need to be out a lot to be effective. It’s ultimately a job that is about surveying the cultural smorgasbord and bringing back the choicest cuts to readers.”
I read Tina Brown's super juicy book about Vanity Fair, where the required night life of an editor seems insane; she went to dinners, galas and premieres seemingly 7 days a week. Is this still the case in 2025? - Susette
I do think editors need to be out a lot to be effective. It’s ultimately a job that is about surveying the cultural smorgasbord and bringing back the choicest cuts to readers. Before cellphones, zoom, and social media, there was a more critical need for editors to show up in person; it’s part of the reason that Condé expense accounts were so generous, because it was tough to preside over the culture without a front-row seat. I’d guess that today’s top editors are busy several nights a week, maybe not all seven. As a NYT reporter, I find that in-person meals and events are way more productive, and yield better leads and ideas, than text or DM. I’d actually ask our host Emily this same question – how often is she out and about in the city in order to keep Feed Me relevant and cutting-edge?