Plinky asked, “If you could be an editor for any magazine, which would you choose?”
Oh, that’s a difficult question. There are magazines like Wired, that have enormous distribution within a certain demographic and cover fascinating subjects. Then there are lifestyle magazines that have the potential to be very influential among women, such as Real Simple (the only one I personally ever read). I’m afraid I’d be bored pretty quickly with their constraints, though. More seriously, there are magazines like Scientific American (and Scientific American Mind) or Skeptic. That would be challenging. Do you think National Geographic editors get to travel much? I haven’t even touched the online mags, like Salon, yet. They count, right? Then there are all the little niche publications, like the magazines for various sorts of collectors, or needleworkers, or crossword enthusiasts and so on. Is there a magazine about magazines, other than Writer’s Digest?
I keep coming back to the breadth of material Wired covers. Technology, books, music, sex — that sounds pretty good to me. If I got to play with the latest tech toys, it would be even better!