Object Lessons is a series of short beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of
ordinary things. For a century magazines were the authors of culture and taste of
intelligence and policy - until they were overthrown by the voices of the public themselves
online. Here is a tribute to all that magazines were from their origins in London and on Ben
Franklin's press through their boom - enabled by new technologies - as creators of a new media
aesthetic and a new mass culture into their opulent days in advertising-supported
conglomerates and finally to their fall at the hands of the internet. This tale is told
through the experience of a magazine founder the creator of Entertainment Weekly at Time Inc.
who was also TV critic at TV Guide and People and finally an executive at Condé Nast trying to
shepherd its magazines into the digital age. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an
essay series in The Atlantic.
