The Obama of the media industry?

We told you a few weeks ago how David Remnick ‘81 (a Press Club alum who has hit the proverbial “big time” as editor-in-chief of the New Yorker) was writing a “pimped out” new biography about President Obama. It hit bookshelves today, and critics are absolutely raving about it. And about Remnick!

Yesterday the Times ran a story on how Remnick makes running the New Yorker “look easy” while the media industry collapses around him. Quoth the Grey Lady:

It’s hard to make running any magazine, even The New Yorker, look easy these days. Last year, the magazine’s ad pages fell 24 percent, a little less than the industry average. But Mr. Remnick managed to eke out a small operating profit (excluding corporate overhead charges) by cutting costs, as he had for years.

Understated compliment maybe, but given the Times‘ financial state, you can bet they’re a little jealous of a publication that’s not disastrously bankrupt.

And it wasn’t just the old fogey media that was praising the Princeton man’s virtues. Even Gawker wrote something nice about somebody, and in this case, it was Remnick:

Remnick is perfect for his time and place in the industry. He’s no-nonsense, budget-conscious, and a wise cultivator of talent; he’s also a Princeton man and a willing cultivator of The New Yorker’s insular traditions. … Remnick is the best that anyone could hope for (which is to say, he’s excellent). We’re even willing to indulge his determination to write another fucking Obama book.

And then the media finally decided to like, read the book, I guess, and hey, looks like they love that too! (To save you the effort of reading the reviews, it was called “brilliantly constructed,” “flawless,” and other doting adjectives.)

Michiko Kakutani in the Times writes:

But if the outlines of the story told in “The Bridge” are highly familiar, Mr. Remnick — the editor of The New Yorker and the author of a thoughtful 2008 article in that magazine, “The Joshua Generation: Race and the Campaign of Barack Obama,” from which this book apparently springs — has filled in those broad outlines with insight and nuance. He’s used interviews with many of the formative figures in the president’s life to add details to the narrative of his political and sentimental education — in particular, his relationships with his self-destructive father and his romantic, sometimes naïve mother. Writing with emotional precision and a sure knowledge of politics, Mr. Remnick situates Mr. Obama’s career firmly within a historical context.

Which all adds up to say, “Yeah, we’ve read this Obama story a bunch of times, but shit, Remnick told it the best.”

So there you go. Princeton’s very own David Remnick – tearing up the journalism circuit and repping to the fullest.

(photo via dutchproblogger.com)

Source: magazine.org

David Remnick ‘81, editor-in-chief of The New Yorker (and former Press Clubber aw yeah!), has a biography of Barack Obama in the works. The Alfred A. Knopf imprint of Random House said it plans to publish the bio on April 6.

Remnick’s written about Obama in the past, and he promises the book would not simply be a “pimped out” version of this New Yorker article published in November 2008.

Confession: Remnick didn’t say “pimped out,” but rather “pumped up,” but the New York Times’ ArtsBeat blog had reported he had. Which is hilarious, because, does anyone at The New Yorker use “pimp” as a verb not ironically?

(hat tip to Daily Intel for catching the switch)

If you keep reading, this picture will make sense

You’d think the New Yorker would be solidly in the tank for the ol’ Orange and Black.  Editor-in-Chief David Remnick ‘81 didn’t teach himself, after all.

In recent years, however, Yale has been getting most of the love from this classiest of rags (see here and here and here).  But as long as the stories are as entertaining as this week’s take on the  timeless musical fantasia known as “That’s Why I Chose Yale,” we won’t complain.

A choice passage:

James Goodale, Class of ’55, and a former general counsel for the Times, made it through all seventeen minutes—more collegians bursting into song, accompanied by “Up with People”-style dance numbers, and even some electric-guitar shredding in the art gallery—before reporting that the production seemed “intended for an audience that I couldn’t divine.” He added, “My God, if you’re a hockey player, you think, I’ll go to Princeton.”

In other New Yorker-related news, apparently Princeton Politics Professor Gary Bass sometimes writes in to give his opinion on current cinema?  Most random New Yorker blog post about one of my former professors EVER… The subject is The Young Victoria, a no-doubt sumptuously costumed historical romance starring British bombshell Emily Blunt — and whether it holds any appeal for the male segment of the viewing public.  Professor Bass writes in to say:

I’m a guy and I liked “Young Victoria” too, and not just for Emily Blunt. [Queen Victoria's husband] Albert was an antislavery activist, and Victoria drove Disraeli barking mad with newspaper clippings about the killing of baby seals and, in 1876, Bulgarian civilians.

But what does he think about Victoria’s chances of winning the Oscar for Best Costume Design?  If you ask me, it’ll face some stiff competition from Bright Star, an equally sumptuous period piece featuring a winsome heroine who just happens to work as… a costume designer.  But I’m willing to be persuaded otherwise.  Perhaps a trip to GBass’s office hours will provide some clarity?  I’ll report back.

(image source: wikipedia.com)