Beautiful, wonderful. No other words for describing a book, Mag Men
Why a magazine, a good magazine, let me remark it, becomes so special for its readers? It's a miscellaneous of things. Of course the magazine is picked up because the reader feels that it is like staying at home when he reads it, but also because the cover is attractive, thematics are intriguing and nice, and it's designed for not being forgotten the day after.
The importance of big magazines is this ones: staying with readers forever. As for books, magazines remain a central part for a reader because they are physicals. They can be touched, they can be brought evrrywhere, and they remain also at long in the existence of a family or person because of the intelligence of written pieces.
There are special people who, working in the "backstage" of journalism create magazines with intuition, thinking to the readers that they will reach. Bernard and Glaser did it for more than 50 years starting with New York evolving that reality, a supplement of a newspaper, in a stand-alone magazine. Glaser is one of the most important graphic designer, while Bernard the designer and art director of many prestigious magazines.
These two creatives worked with many other amazing people who made the difference for and in these magazines. I want to remember Nora Ephron a contributor of New York, avid writer, and creator of beautiful movies, like When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail.
In New York you will find an interesting article by Pileggi about Little Italy, caricatures of Richard Nixon, pictures and articles of a society that was frantically changing; there are stories of mafia in New York, like also a shocking article on an hypothetical fire taking as example the Twin Towers. Prophetic; Sex, violence, the meaning of the new rites of the Saturday Night with portraits of eminent people like Andy Wharol who changed the idea and meaning of art.
After this experience, and after Murdoch's acquisition of New York Milton Glazer, devastated like also all the rest of creatives, decided of leaving.
There is to add something else in all this drama: that magazines without the support of advertisements can't continue a joyful and long existence. That's why it is important to mixing the paper edition with the online edition of a magazine. Advertising sometimes are more often a story of the online edition of a magazine or newsmagazine because people are constantly connected.
A magazine with a short life because unsupported by advertsing was Audience, where important people expressed their opinions about the state of America, passing through tales, poetry. Contributors of this magazine were names like Kerouac, Faulkner, Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, Borges and many others.
Other projects where Bernard worked in the while werr Paris Match, because it needed a redesign, plus Time, Atlantic.
The two creatives will work again together for redesigning The Washington Post.
"Designing a magazine is like building a bridge, is a collective work" writes Glaser, adding: "If the building of a bridge does not enrich the awareness of those who work on it, then that bridge ought not to be built."
I confess I fall in love for this book because I am a reporter. It's wonderful to see how a magazine is created, because it is thanks to the passion, hard work of many talented people that a reality is put in condition of being appreciated by its readers.
Geniality, intelligence, humor, capacity of capturing the most important news for discussing them, these ones the tricks for giving the best.
The book is superbly beauty, richly illustrated, it is a hardback that can be also a good gift!
Highly recommended.
I thank Columbia University Press for the physical copy of this book.
Anna Maria Polidori
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