WHERE ARE YOU TODAY?
WHAT CAN YOU SEE FROM THE WINDOW?
Did I say there were great views from parts of the building? Unfortunately, the magazine’s art department is not one of them. Most of what I can see is the office building next door.
ARE YOU A MORNING OR EVENING PERSON?
Both! (Otherwise known as someone who gets little sleep.) I used to be an evening person but I’ve had to adjust my views on that because I have a six year old boy who gets up before the sun rises and likes company. If I had my way though, I’d definitely stay up late and sleep in. I’m most productive at night.
The cover artwork and photography vary greatly in terms of how much time we have to produce them. It can be anywhere from three weeks to three days. We start to design our covers approximately 12 days before the magazine appears in the paper. Our editor in chief, Jake Silverstein, sometimes rejects ideas, but he’s very visual and often comes back with a different idea.
THE WEEKLY NEWS MAGAZINE COVER HAS REESTABLISHED ITS STATUS AS DESIGN ‘EVENT’. WHY?
Over the last decade or so, as magazine publishing has moved more and more into the digital space, covers didn’t seem to have a home outside of print. Putting the cover of a magazine on the publication’s home page wasn’t a good idea because that tied you even more to the print edition.
After we settle on a concept Jake’s input is less about accepting or rejecting what we show and more about helping to shape it. Since we are on a weekly deadline we often show things that are in progress to make sure there are no surprises at the end. Despite all our best efforts occasionally things go wrong, I don’t think our process is any more tumultuous than that of most weekly magazines. It’s just the nature of the beast.
Recently, with the popularity of social media, it feels as if magazine covers have found a new home. People are consuming content in small bites on their phones throughout the day in between whatever else they’re doing and the covers are a quick visual hit that people can react to and share. THE WEEKLY FLOW OF NYTMAG COVER DESIGNS APPEARS EFFORTLESS, BUT I’M SURE THAT PROCESS CAN SOMETIMES BE FAR FROM SMOOTH.
Ha! I’m glad that it appears effortless. On rare occasions when we quickly hit on an idea or a visual that works, it is. More often we create multiple covers for a story.
LAUNCHED 1896 NEW YORK WEEKLY NYTIMES.COM/SECTION/MAGAZINE
WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS WEEK?
WHAT ARE YOU LEAST LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS WEEK?
WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING AFTER THIS CHAT?
I love to get the first run copies of the magazine. They come in on Tuesday mornings the week before they’re published. I always check for them when I arrive at the office. This week we have a typographic cover that I’m excited about. We worked with Sawdust on it. It’s the first time we’ve collaborated with them. I’m looking forward to seeing how it printed.
Trying to get up to speed on everything that happened while I was out of the office. I keep hoping that one day we’ll just publish a ‘special double issue’ right before the holiday and then shut down for the week. I fear it’s not in the cards, though.
Getting a large cup of coffee before plowing through a bunch of unanswered email. Lots to catch up on! — JEREMY LESLIE, MAGCULTURE JOURNAL, 01.0.15
16:30 GAIL BICHLER, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
I’m in my office on the 6th floor of The New York Times building in mid-town Manhattan. It’s a beautiful Renzo Piano designed building with floor-to-ceiling windows. There’s great light in the office and some amazing views from various parts of the building.
