Everyone loves a good rivalry, and while we're not saying that's incentive enough to pick up a copy of the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times this weekend, the rivalry itself should at least generate some top-notch content within the magazines' pages.
Earlier this week we offered some previews of what to expect from the newly-revamped WSJ Magazine under the watchful new eye of Deborah Needleman (former editor of Domino), including cover subject Vincent Cassel, whose film Black Swan debuts today. On the New York Times' T Magazine front, former Vogue-staffer Sally Singer intends to present an issue that's decidedly different from past ones.
Besides a rather incisive cover story on Mick Jagger written by author and journalist Zoe Heller, the magazine will also feature a somewhat aptly-timed story on Wikileaks and Julian Assange; a profile of Imam Rauf, the man behind the Ground Zero mosque, and an excerpt from “Twin,” author Allen Shawn's account of his severely autistic twin sister—hardly the kind of fluff pieces you'd expect from a style-focused magazine whose primary purpose is to generate ad sales revenue. “Not everyone who gets T is a devout follower of fashion,” Singer told WWD, explaining that the doesn't just want to present a catalogue of "stuff." "When I do a magazine, I want people to live with it,” she added.
And while Singer, like Needleman, has said that there's no apparent rivalry between themselves individually, nor their magazines, we find it hard to believe that Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Rupert Murdoch feel the same way. Expect some good reading this weekend.
