A Year of New York

Even Jimmy Breslin, an original investor and contributing editor of New York magazine, "woulda bet anything in the world it'd be nothin' but a memory by now." But the breezy weekly surprised the skeptics by celebrating its first birthday last week.

New York's all-star team was on quintessential display in the anniversary issue: Gloria Steinem crusading for women's rights, 'Adam Smith' (actually George J. W. Goodman) contemplating conglomerates, Tom Wolfe on street fight etiquette, and Jimmy Breslin capturing the real Joe Namath. "Namath was shaking his head," wrote Breslin. " 'Boy, that was a real memory job. You know, I only was with that girl one night? We had a few drinks and we balled and I took her phone number and that's it. Only one night with the girl. And I come up with the right name. A real memory job.' " Personal reporting is New York's forte, but it has other assets as well--a young, eager staff, a fresh appearance, competent critics of the arts, and the high visibility in the nation's writing capital needed to attract both top freelancers and talented newcomers.

New Pressures. After a promising first issue, the new magazine floundered in search of an identity, changing its format, graphics and its conception of itself with each passing week. Advertising shied away for a full six months."We did our dress rehearsals in public," says Gloria Steinem.

The shakedown period convinced Editor Clay Felker that his best hope for attracting the educated, high-income reader lay in appealing to the city dweller's basic self-interest. The "how to" article became a staple, from "Taking Advantage of Tax Shelters" to "How to Eat Cheaply at High-Priced Restaurants." Says Felker: "We as journalists looked too long and too lovingly at the hippies, yippies, protesters and rock groups. They are no longer, to use the clichee, relevant. What is relevant is that you can go broke on $80,000 a year, that you can't get an apartment, that there are new pressures on marriage, and new ways to make money."

New York's New York may not be the city that all of its citizens would recognize (going broke on $80,000 a year is still a very special disaster). And the magazine's critics still point to its smug, In-crowd perspective. "New York," says Freelance Writer Leopold Tyrmand, "is to inflatable plastic furniture what the New Yorker is to Chippendale."

Success is hardly assured. Circulation is still only some 145,000, and losses ran to more than $1,000,000 in the first year. But at the first birthday breakfast party in Manhattan last week, the orange juice was spiked as much with enthusiasm as with Dom Perignon.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.