AJR  The Beat
From AJR,   April 1999

Talkin’ Tina   

Former New Yorker Editor Tina Brown raids her former magazine, hiring an editor away to direct her new Talk magazine.

By Lori Robertson
Lori Robertson (robertson.lori@gmail.com), a former AJR managing editor, is a senior contributing writer for the magazine.      


Former New Yorker Editor Tina Brown raids her former magazine, hiring an editor away to direct her new Talk magazine. Brown, Talk Media's chairman/editor in chief, has installed David Kuhn, features director of The New Yorker, as Talk's executive editor/vice president. The 38-year-old Kuhn joined The New Yorker in 1994 as editor of "Talk of the Town" and special issues; he also worked for Vanity Fair for seven years. Talk, a general interest monthly due out in mid-August, "will both reflect and shape the American conversation," Brown has said repeatedly. Talk is likely to fuse news, politics, pop culture and celebrity gossip, New York media watchers speculate, though its precise mission remains secret. The magazine will compete with Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, two Condé Nast publications that Brown reshaped as editor. Financed by the Hearst Corp.'s magazine division and Walt Disney Co.'s Miramax Films, Talk is expected to debut with a 500,000 circulation and a newsstand price of $2.95.

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