Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about
the hidden lives of ordinary things.
For a century, magazines were the authors of culture and taste, of
intelligence and policy - until they were overthrown by the voices of
the public themselves online. Here is a tribute to all that magazines
were, from their origins in London and on Ben Franklin's press; through
their boom - enabled by new technologies - as creators of a new media
aesthetic and a new mass culture; into their opulent days in
advertising-supported conglomerates; and finally to their fall at the
hands of the internet. This tale is told through the experience of a
magazine founder, the creator of Entertainment Weekly at Time Inc.,
who was also TV critic at TV Guide and People and finally an
executive at Condé Nast trying to shepherd its magazines into the
digital age.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The
Atlantic.