NEW YORK — One is a guarded editor who doesn’t self-promote. The other courts his own fame even as he skewers the famous. So who are they? Step forward Adam Moss and Maer Roshan. If their DNA were spliced, they just might make the perfect editor. Alone, their strengths — respectively, a head-down work ethic and a heat-seeking personality — often seem their biggest weaknesses.
Since the media world is filled with foils and careers in lockstep — not to mention countless knock-offs of other magazines — here, the first in an occasional feature in which WWD will compare talked-about people, trends and titles. Call it the media version of physicists’ parallel universe.
| PARALLEL UNIVERSE |
Adam Moss
|
| Currently editing |
New York magazine
|
| Interviews given in the last year |
5
|
| Gawker mentions in the last year |
22
|
| Issues published in the last year |
48
|
| Age |
48
|
| Astrological sign |
Taurus
Taurus traits: placid,
determined, self-indulgent
|
| Education |
Oberlin College
|
| First job in media |
Copy boy at The New York Times.
|
| Became editor in chief of |
7 Days, in 1988
|
| Worked together on |
2004 New York magazine Republican National Convention daily
|
| Guiding philosophy |
“When I read [magazines], I get very excited. They are emotional things for me.” — The New York Times, April 4, 2005
|
| Gives good |
meetings
|
| Dislikes |
gossip
|
| Aspires to be |
Joseph Lelyveld
|
| Recent thorn in his side |
Michael Wolff
|
| |
“[New York has] repositioned itself as a worthy satellite of The New York Times….But it isn’t funny. It’s completely in earnest. It’s serious about its job, grim in its efforts to elevate the metropolitan-area upper middle class.” — Wolff in Vanity Fair, June 2005
|
| Unlikely benefactor |
Bruce Wasserstein
|
| Likely cover subjects |
children
|
| Plagued by comparisons to |
The New York Times Magazine
|
|
Maer Roshan
|
| Currently editing |
Radar
|
| Interviews given in the last year |
16
|
| Gawker mentions in the last year |
67
|
| Issues published in the last year |
1
|
| Age |
37
|
| Astrological sign |
Leo
Leo traits: enthusiastic,
creative, bossy, dogmatic
|
| Education |
New York University
|
| First job in media |
Messenger at Details.
|
| Became editor in chief of |
NYQ (QW), in 1991
|
| Worked together on |
2004 New York magazine Republican National Convention daily |
| Guiding philosophy |
|
| Gives good |
parties
|
| Dislikes |
schedules
|
| Aspires to be |
Tina Brown
|
| Recent thorn in his side |
Kurt Andersen
|
| |
“At a time when glossy journalism tends to be very dull and similar, Radar is, alas, a wholly recursive exercise in recombinant magazine-making.” — Andersen in New York magazine, May 27, 2005
|
| Unlikely benefactor |
Mort Zuckerman
|
| Likely cover subjects |
Paris Hilton
|
| Plagued by comparisons to |
Spy, Talk, Radar I
|
|
