Time (with You) Is Our Religion
The Snooki and JWOWWW of newsletters is going media mad and trying to figure out how to keep our lash extensions on in space.
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Spreadhearts,
Gah, so much has happened in Spreadlandia since we last convened in this sacred space, and we’re not just talking about the redemption song of Mike White’s “big blond blob” (did you buy it?) or Elle’s bizarro-world Women in Space paid ad collab with Jeff Bezos Lauren Sánchez and Katy Perry. (More on that below but, for starters, et tu, Gayle?)
We’re talking about the departure of Radhika Jones from the top spot at Vanity Fair; the rather mean-spirited chatter that her departure unleashed over at Puck; and a rare act of defiance via Instagram stories by one Michelle Ruiz, who is apparently not just the last unicorn of magazine cover-story writers (contributing many of them, in many places: Gwyneth and Jenna Ortega for VF, Kirsten for Marie Claire) but also willing to step into the media crosshairs to defend an ally. After Dylan Byers wrote witheringly and, we think, unfairly—and in classic Puck fashion—of Jones’s VF tenure, Ruiz posted this:
Who will fill the spot? When Condé brass called us to consult, we threw out two names: Sarah Ball, current EIC of WSJ magazine who cut her teeth at Vanity Fair and GQ, and is known to possess the kind of innate BDE it takes to, say, turn up the much-needed heat on what should be Hollywood’s sexiest party of the year. Also—and loyal readers knew this was coming—the Times Style section’s Stella Bugbee, who has a sixth sense for where media is headed and is also both an art genius and a “real” editor with genuine vision and incredible taste. OK, we also threw in the more predictable (male) candidate, current GQ pooh-bah Will Welch, who brings the rizz (did we say that right?), is beloved by fashion advertisers and his own actual famous friends, and who is already said to be the apple of Anna Wintour’s gimlet eye. (Correct: two out of three of these stars happen to be past interviewees on our Spread x Print Is Dead podnership series! Finger, meet pulse. And while we’re here, paging Ms. Ball: Let’s get on the mic!)
Speaking of magazines—nay, brands—is now a good time to bring up the questions that are roiling around our brains after reading
’s roundup (in Bugbee’s Style) of new indie fashion mags that you should not feel bad if you’ve never heard of—and which are curiously able to pull major cover talent, like Polyesther (Sofia Coppola), Cultured (Julianne Moore), and Family Style (La Paltrow)? Hallelujah, all are good lookin’ publications that would dress up any coffee table and make you look real cool in the Air France lounge! And at least one claims to be operating “in the black,” a piece of information that would be so satisfying if we had even the tiniest sense of, like… how many issues are printed, distributed, sold, subscribed to? Hard to gauge a print resurgence when for all we know they’re hand-cranking 10 copies in their West Village brownstones and handing them out exclusively to guests of the five-bedroom residence with pool (and a blender!) at the Four Seasons Koh Samui. (This reminds us: Can some investigative whiz please find out the actual reach/circulation of “womanosphere” publications like Evie and Conservateur? How big is this supposed conservative groundswell, really? We want the data.)
Continuing the theme: big props to our friends at Harper’s Bazaar. Their current issue, themed “Right Here, Right Now,” marks the 40th anniversary of an issue guest-edited by the legend Dick Avedon. The original, “borne of a moment of upheaval not unlike the one we’re currently living in” was titled “the off-beat side of Now.” The new one asks writers, illustrators, choreographers, fine artists, and one Fran Lebowitz how they think about creating now—which, yeah, how do you keep up the optimism or rage or energy that making art requires in an era like this—to try to divine a collective response to this overwhelming moment. This is a lofty undertaking that, taken in total, has “resistance” written all over it, without ever quite spelling it out. This is where EIC Samira Nasr (also a Spread X PID alum!) shines brightest, and proof that even in a corporate climate where “doing more with less” is the unrelenting directive—remember, in late November, when this issue was doubtless already bubbling up, parent company Hearst laid off 200 people—you can pursue a big idea, and inspire your readers when they need it most.
Let’s turn the page,
Rachel & Maggie
P.S. Maggie recently had a delightful conversation with
—who you may recall as the man who recently made the landmark admission “I’m the problem, it’s me” in his couples’ therapy sessions—about her book, The Kingdom of Prep, for his podcast Eminent Americans.Hot off the presses!
Have you already sped through the first three episodes of the final season of Handmaid’s Tale? (Ball) gagging for Dying for Sex? As promised (and voted on!), the Spread Culture Calendar™ is back, baby—well, it never fully left—and your April picks are ready to jump onto your Google cal and save you from the neverending scroll.
How to get in on it? Couldn’t be easier. Google Calendar users, just click here to view and subscribe to the Spread Culture Calendar™.
Note for the tech-challenged among us: If you tried adding it to your calendar and it’s not popping up: Open your Google Calendar app. Click the stack of three lines at the top left-hand corner. Scroll down; you should see the Spread Culture Calendar™ on the list of calendar options. Check the box to activate it, et voilà! If you’re still stuck, email us at rachelandmaggie@thespread.media. We’re here for you, honey bunny.
“Space is going to finally be glam” is a sentence Katy Perry legit said out loud to a reporter.
Did this subscriber cover light up our ex-Elle-editor group chat? It did, girl. A particular favorite was this TikTok, in which influencer Blakely Thornton makes the point, “you can’t rebrand oligarchy as feminism!” The moment that Jessica Gross’s piece on this “morally vacuous space stunt” as another “nail in the coffin of celebrity feminism” was published this morning, it was rapidly pushed our way by many of you, Spreaders. And yeah, it stings. We worked at Elle in the era of women’s media’s feminist facelift and Beyonce’s flashing FEMINIST sign—and yes, of girlbosses and exclusive, candy-colored coworking spaces: It was far from perfect!—and it’s hard not to see the many hypocrisies that Gross points out in the article as a crushing backslide, yet another case of institutions bending the knee to Trumpism even before they’re forced to.
While we’re at it, we’re starting a petition to get Olivia Munn—who did not mince words on this gluttonous undertaking—a permanent gig hosting with Jenna Bush. Make Morning TV Feisty Again!
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