Trouble at Texas Monthly

[garrow]

Loved this magazine from even before I lived in Texas. It has been facing staff revolts since the sale from Emmis to a hedge fund.

Can the Best Magazine in Texas Be Saved?

 

[QYFW]

Be sad if it goes away or becomes a lesser publication. Some fascinating stories.

 

[playthrough]

I've never lived a day in Texas but have subscribed for years, since when my wife worked at another Emmis-owned magazine and I'd pick up copies from her office. Forget the best magazine in Texas, I'd argue in its heyday it was one of the best in the country.

I've got a year's worth stacked on my table so I'm still reading the writers who have since left. Didn't know it had gotten so bad.

 

[SpeedTchr]

I have read Texas Monthly for 40 years, despite its heavy lean to the left. It used to be great journalism. Now? Maybe not so much. Good journalism doesn't seem to be sexy at this point in our history.

 

[typefitter]

I've never lived a day in Texas but have subscribed for years, since when my wife worked at another Emmis-owned magazine and I'd pick up copies from her office. Forget the best magazine in Texas, I'd argue in its heyday it was one of the best in the country.

I've got a year's worth stacked on my table so I'm still reading the writers who have since left. Didn't know it had gotten so bad.

This is the literary equivalent of seeing the light from a long-dead star.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Be sad if it goes away or becomes a lesser publication. Some fascinating stories.

I think there was one several years ago by someone who wrote about hanging out with Oswald. Can't remember specs. Anybody?

 

[playthrough]

This is the literary equivalent of seeing the light from a long-dead star.

That bad, eh? I'm trying to be a good soldier and read the back issues in order, even if apparently they'll get worse as I reach present day.

 

[typefitter]

That bad, eh? I'm trying to be a good soldier and read the back issues in order, even if apparently they'll get worse as I reach present day.

There are still some good people there. Really good people. But they've lost a ton of talent in the last year.

 

[typefitter]

I mean, you could make a good case that Pamela Colloff is one of the best reporters and writers in magazines today, maybe the best. Just losing her was a massive blow. And she's far from the only departure.

 

[tapintoamerica]

I think there was one several years ago by someone who wrote about hanging out with Oswald. Can't remember specs. Anybody?

Found it. God, this is great.
If there is a tear left, shed it for Jack Ruby. He didn’t make history; he only stepped in front of it. When he emerged from obscurity into that inextricable freeze-frame that joins all of our minds to Dallas, Jack Ruby, a bald-headed little man who wanted above all else to make it big, had his back to the camera.

 

[Slacker]

Found it. God, this is great.
If there is a tear left, shed it for Jack Ruby. He didn’t make history; he only stepped in front of it. When he emerged from obscurity into that inextricable freeze-frame that joins all of our minds to Dallas, Jack Ruby, a bald-headed little man who wanted above all else to make it big, had his back to the camera.

Gary Cartwright was an original effin' stud.
If you've never heard of him, look him up. He died last year.

 

[Azrael]

Texas Monthly has been one of the all-time titles.

But this new advertorial strategy cures the illness by killing the patient.

 

[Moderator1]

One thing I always enjoyed, besides the great writing, was browsing through the ranch ads in the back of the magazine. If I ever win the lottery ****

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I love TM.
If I had a writing dream job, working for TM would be it.
Fantastic stuff.

 

[jr/shotglass]

A couple of my favorites, discovered through Longform:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/candy/

https://features.texasmonthly.com/editorial/the-reckoning/

https://features.texasmonthly.com/editorial/still-life/

 

[typefitter]

I always thought TM was one of those titles that subscribed to the Esquire model (or whomever started it). You'd get some lighter stuff, best BBQ and a little story about a band or whatever, but every issue would have at least one very good feature. And then three or four times a year, someone like Pamela Colloff or Skip Hollandsworth or Katy Vine would drop a major piece—an essential piece that would knock you on your ass. Like, a story that would just wreck you.

For me, that's the contract that a monthly should make with its readers. Every month we'll give you something good, and every now and then, we'll give you something great. I wish TM's new ownership would recognize the value of that kind of commitment to journalism. This is a larger problem in the industry—the ASMEs have four categories for digital and online ****, and two for long stories. It's so dumb.

If magazines don't give you meat, then what's the point of them? **** the Internet and **** the quick hit. Here is a beautiful little book of substance, made with care and delivered to your door every month. I think people are starving for that now. That's what TM was, and it's what it should be.

 

[Azrael]

That is absolutely right.

But that sort of incremental, long-horizon thinking isn't necessarily the hallmark of private equity money.

 

[nickp]

Texas Monthly used to be a premiere magazine with great journalism and stories

 

[GuessWho]

Gary Cartwright was an original effin' stud.
If you've never heard of him, look him up. He died last year.

In the early '80s, he came out with a book entitled Confessions of a Washed-Up Sportswriter. It's basically a compilation of essays he wrote for Texas Monthly, and includes some really great stories about sportswriting and newspapers from his days in the biz in the wild-and-wooly days in DFW. Really an entertaining read. In his final years, he seemed to be a bitter guy who had to fight some personal demons, but in his prime, he was as good -- and wild -- as it got.

 

[redsox8]

Correctly, oh, woe is I.