Who reads the New Yorker?

For a long time. I started with cartoons.

What is the demographic? Upper middle class educated white people?

It's always been "middle class" in the old sense. Not middle income, not upper crust. People with an education and a profession.

I did. I liked the pre Tina Brown New Yorker. I loved those long long articles. John McPhee was a fav. I am less interested in it after it became more newsy and plugged into current events.

It's got a rather wide national distribution, mostly appealing to very middle class people in very middle class places like Iowa City or Charlotte NC where having it on your coffee table makes you look like you must be smart (or at least, you can read). I would guess the average age of its subscribers, which always skewed old, is now probably about 70. I don't know anyone under the age of 40 who reads it except for the creative writing students at every crappy masters program hoping against hope that some day they'll get a story published in it.

Jeffrey Toobin writes good books and some good articles.

Not me.

I do. I used to have a subscription. Now I read a lot of articles online. They often have really good digital subscription specials. Though, it's pretty easy to get around paywalls if need be. Plus they seem a pretty high level of free content before being asked to pay. And I still buy a hard copy in the airport when traveling to read on the plane - if there's two or three articles that interest me. Granted, at 48 years old, the print is so damn small. Lol. Need my readers now.

I’ve subscribed for years and I live in Iowa City! It’s become a habit. The magazines pile up and every once in a while I arrange them by date. I read them when I’m bored with what I’m reading it I’m between books. I can’t say that I read every article word by word. I like Judith Thurman and Rebecca Mead. I skim Jill Lepore. She has interesting essay subjects but she writes way too much. The political reporting isn’t different from your favorite political blog.

The demographic is NPR listeners. These days I don't know any New Yorker subscribers who aren't also big on NPR.

I subscribed when I was young (I'm old now) and it was pretty hit or miss under William Shawn but at least it was surprising and had a bit of an edge. Tina Brown ruined it for me and David Remnick is just boring (he runs the same sort of article you can read everywhere else). The cartoon competition was the last straw and now I never look at it.

I do. I've had a subscription for years. Love it - the articles, the cartoons, and the covers.

The crossword puzzles and games are a lot of fun. They have one called Name Drop where you have to guess a famous person based on clues.

I do, also. Longtime subscriber. Live in Michigan.

Iranians and other foreigners.

I read it. I don’t have a subscription but I’ll read a copy when I come across one. I read everything in it except the long fiction.

I do. I love the long articles, don't read the editorial at the front and increasingly avoid the political reporting, too.

Ronan Farrow had an article recently about Britney Spears' conservatorship which seemed odd for The NY'er.

Loved the old days when it arrived in a brown paper slip; when "Goings on About Town" was worth reading; when Pauline Kael wrote the film reviews; when the fiction was SO much better; and when even the ads were more interesting.

And yes, they do pile up.

It features some great long read once in a while, and that's it.

I buy a subscription every Christmas for my husband. He reads it from cover to cover.

Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Atlantic Monthly, Town & Country, New York Magazine, NYT Magazine, Esquire, Sight & Sound, Film Comment, Mother Jones, National Geographic, The Smithsonian, Interview, Vanity Fair, Scientific American, Discover... and yes New Yorker.

I love reading any of the long profiles about a particular person. In recent years they have seemed to take less time and care in crafting those. It’s probably also been difficult with social media and the web making it easier for people to find obscure information for themselves.

Ronan's piece was probably a tie-in to that documentary about it I couldn't finish watching. I loathed the way they filmed it, made me dizzy.

I've had a subscription for years and have noticed the change, the usage of vulgar language in various short stories. Last month an extended article on a botched circumcision that went into extreme description of his penis. I wondered how the New Yorker's famous fact checkers checked the veracity of various statements that were made. Does anyone remember magazine called Saturday Review, editor Norman Cousins.

(R18) (R24) I totally agree about the changes in the magazine, give me the previous years..Pauline Kael and especially Andrew Porter reviewing the classical music scene.

If you are reading the new yorker, i can not fathom how boring your life must be !

(R26) I yawned reading your inane statement.

Yes.

Only look at cartoons. Articles too lengthy.

As a woman of taste and discretion, I read only two publications: the New Yorker for culture and intellectual stimulation, and Datalounge for gossip and sizemeat verificata.

I believe we call them prisspots.

R6

Is Jeffrey Toobin still in vogue? I thought his readership dropped dramatically after he masturbated on Zoom in front of most of the U.S.

I subscribed (digitally) for the first time last year. Their digital subscription includes a lot of in-app articles that are not in the magazine itself, plus the access to their online archive. I think where they excel is not the same political and COVID-19 coverage which you can find, well, everywhere, but their reviews of cultural events, books, all genres of music, movies, television, etc. Often, they also feature articles focusing on the climate crisis and environmental issues which are well worth a read.

R32 he is writing a new book on the Oklahoma City bombings. Should come out next year.

I'm still waiting to see Toobin's noobin.

My God, the people "unhappy" with the NYer must be as old as my now deceased aunt whose Christmas gift subscription started me as a subscriber. She noticed that I liked reading her. Tina Brown has been gone for decades and while she stunk up the place for awhile, she also ushered out the waxworks--writers like Ved Mehta who droned on about nothing. Kael has been dead for years you know and her later reviews tended to be unreadable.

[quote]Who reads the New Yorker?

Presumably people who are from or are interested in New York.

I did a long time ago.

Yeah, I've read it regularly for over 40 years. I always read it back to front, and never get to the sections at the beginning. I think that started with Pauline Kael's film reviews at the back... I used to think Kael was god, though now I kind suspect if I read her again I'd see petty and venal. I was in a position once to see how she longed after Clint Eastwood, even while trashing him in print.

It's "changed" several times editorially over the decades, not just w/Tina Brown. Remember how at one time they never "allowed" any photos at all. And recent years the review of music and literature and the arts assume a younger, "hip", demographic. Even if it's 70 year olds like me reading about the newest hip hop/grime/trap star.

[Quote] I wondered how the New Yorker's famous fact checkers checked the veracity of various statements that were made.

My goodness, yes. I was at the receiving end of their grilling once. Impressive.

[quote] Last month an extended article on a botched circumcision that went into extreme description of his penis.

I loved this article, it was horrifying / fascinating!

I just finished the circumcision article. It was horrifying, and I ended up skipping the more graphic parts about what was happening to his dick (ouch!), but the background cultural stuff was interesting.

Should I ask for a link to the circumcision article? I get queasy easily but my curiosity had been sparked.

I always found I’d get halfway through their features and think, this is going to be twice as much as I want to read about this topic. .

The Atlantic is better

I don't read any magazines that don't have lots of photos.

I gave it up for Vanity Fair when they had real articles. Then I tried the Atlantic. Finally Harper's is the last one of them I subscribed to

I used to read every word of the Economist; but then the US edition became a Republican spin-sheet and I stopped trusting it.

I do. They pile up and I stack them in various places in my house. Many amusing covers of the Orange Turd. I fantasize about crafting a giant collage, but then the next issue arrives….

I like the fiction and the so called poetry. Like wen I was a kid and got Highlights magazine — fave their was Goofus and Gallant

I dö.

I'm more of a People person.

I like the moderately challenging crossword at the back.

It lost its luster after William Shawn retired in 1987. David Remnick is a starfucker, just like Tina Brown. To go from publishing Hannah Arendt, Janet Malcolm and Pauline Karel to Ronan Farrow is quite the precipitous drop in quality. Also the humor columns (Shouts & Murmurs, Borowitz Report) are painfully unfunny.

Julianne Moore.

Seriously.

As mentioned above, the Atlantic is now a much better magazine -- better politics, better writing, and its editors allow their writers to retain their voice, as opposed to the New Yorker, in which every article feels as though it were written by the same person.

I'm a long time subscriber. I love going to my mailbox weekly and seeing my new New Yorker!

OP: Trump supporter with a brain the size of a pea.

R49 "So called poetry..." Please explain. Two poems per issue, both from recognized leading poets, and new poets. A range of forms and styles. Unquestionably the premier periodical that's not primarily literary (Poetry, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review) for publishing poetry.

The New Yorker OD'd on Tina. RIP.

So much better after Pauline Kael died.

Pauline Kael had retired from the New Yorker long before she died.

I haven't read it in probably twenty years. There was a time when I read in it, not cover to cover. I never subscribed so probably in the library or doctor's office.

I used to read the Economist cover to cover. Kept up with UK politics that way. It came to my then workplace so it was free. A few years ago I bought a reduced subscription thing. A nostalgia thing. It was somehow ridiculous. I thought I could get most of this information poking around with Google. How does it stay in business?

The Atlantic periodically publishes something really stupid.

The Atlantic sometimes veers too close to Slate-style hot takes and I can’t stand the contingent of idiots there who think college campuses are the premier threat to the nation. They get a big plus from me for Caitlin Flanagan, though, who writes extraordinarily interesting and persuasive stuff even when I disagree with it 75% of the time. I wish they hadn’t hired Liz Bruenig, there’s no one more tiresome (other than her husband).

I read the short stories, the book and film pieces and one or two other other articles.

Of course the articles I don’t read are the ones people talk about for weeks.

I check it every week online and usually find at least one long article to absorb me. The huge recent piece about the gay Bennington teacher who kept voluminous diaries and mentored Donna Tartt, for example. A type far from alien to DL, and a riveting read.

Articles by Louis Menand, Adam Gopnik, Joan Acocella and Anthony Lane usually repay attention. I formerly subscribed, but the sense of duty at the pile-ups became oppressive, so online cherry-picks work better for me. I'd miss The New Yorker if it wasn't there any more.

I had a print subscription for several years. After I was done reading each magazine, I'd pass it on to my coworker, who seemed to appreciate getting the mags.

I like the short stories and the long articles. Never did find the cartoons funny at all.

If there had been at least *one* good article / story in each issue, I might have continued subscribing. When I realized that I could go through an entire issue and not find one, single worthwhile thing in there, I stopped subscribing.

[quote]As mentioned above, the Atlantic is now a much better magazine -- better politics, better writing, and its editors allow their writers to retain their voice, as opposed to the New Yorker, in which every article feels as though it were written by the same person.

That's because they have that self-consciously old-fashioned house style where they do shit like put a hyphen in [italic]deluxe[/italic], put an umlaut over the second [italic]o[/italic] in [italic]cooperate,[/italic] and sprinkle commas over everything like so much black pepper.

I stopped reading it when that English twat took over. Since then it's been star-fucker palooza.

[quote] What is the demographic? Upper middle class educated white people

Oh no. "White people", how shameful!

I've had a subscription since the late '70s. I used to think I had to read every article, even the ones about things I cared nothing about. I'm long over that now, but I probably read about half of each issue on average. Fiction has been hit or miss for a good while, but their reporting from Ukraine has been very good. It's almost worth keeping the subscription for Roz Chast's cartoons.

It's still relevant and fun to read. Stands the test of time.

[quote] That's because they have that self-consciously old-fashioned house style where they do shit

No, that belongs in a New York toilet.

I do. It’s still a good read.

I do. It's good for the arts, Q&As with interesting people, and a lot of long form articles are still well researched and written.

Long form articles are too long.

I don't like their 'form'.

My dad used to renew my subscription every Christmas and after he died I was going to stop it. But not getting it made me miss him so I resubscribed. It comes in handy when you’re stuck at the hospital or on a plane or anywhere without good wifi.