It just got ugly in the 1970s for New Journalism, hastened…
““It just got ugly in the 1970s for New Journalism, hastened by the decline of general interest magazine. So what happened? Television, mostly, which siphoned away readers and ad dollars, turned celebrity culture into a growth industry, and assured the end of Life, the Saturday Evening Post, and Collier’s – magazine that had published Mailer, Didion, Hersey, and many others. Esquire, New York, and Rolling Stones were no longer must-reads for an engaged readership that couldn’t wait for the next issue to arrive in their mailboxes, eager to find out what Wolfe, Talese, Thompson, and the rest had in store for them. As the seventies drew to a close, so, too, did the last golden era of American journalism. But there was also a sense of psychic exhaustion – that the great stories had all been told and there was nothing left to write about.””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
TV and celebrity culture killed magazine journalism.
In simple terms: Adapt to new media platforms.
Key Takeaway
media shift;journalism;culture;economics;history
Themes
media consumption
advertising revenue
celebrity influence
journalistic standards
Mood
analysis
historical
Type
End of life:1
Life:0
New-journalism:1
Saturday evening:0
Seventies:1
1970S New:0
New Journalism:1
Ugly 1970S:0
Magazine Happened:1
When to use this quote
- The decline was also due to internal fatigue and a sense that major stories had already been told.
Key Concepts
media industry
cultural analysis
historical retrospectives
Questions to Reflect On
- nostalgic
- reflective
A Different Perspective
What could have revived magazine journalism?;How does media shift affect content quality?