David Remnick acknowledges and embraces his magazine's identity as the "orthodox church of liberalism." This clear, unapologetic positioning creates a strong sense of community and loyalty. For a subscription business, serving a devoted "congregation" is more profitable than chasing a broad, dispassionate audience.
David Remnick contrasts The New Yorker's "stately" weekly metabolism with The Atlantic's faster, "reported op-ed" approach. He views it not as a better or worse strategy, but simply a different one. This highlights a conscious choice to protect the brand’s identity by refusing to compete on speed and volume.
Editor David Remnick reveals that his role in choosing fiction or cartoons is a "convenient fiction." His department heads, as deep subject matter experts, vet thousands of submissions down to a select few. This collaborative model empowers experts and ensures quality while preserving the editor's ultimate, but rarely used, veto power.
Instead of debating AI's creative limits, The New Yorker pragmatically adopted it to solve a production bottleneck. AI-generated voiceovers make written pieces available for listening "well nigh immediately," expanding reach to audio-first consumers without compromising the human-led creative process of the articles themselves.
David Remnick, admitting he didn't know parentheses on a balance sheet meant losses, successfully pivoted The New Yorker to a subscription-first model. He identified the brand's deep reader loyalty as an untapped asset, correctly predicting it could outweigh declining ad revenue in a crucial move for legacy media.
David Remnick equates his decision to stay off Twitter with marrying the right person. He argues it is a strategic choice to protect his focus and mental health from the platform's negativity and distraction. For a top editor, curating one's own inputs is as important as curating the publication's outputs.
Post-interview analysis suggests The New Yorker outlasted competitors by holding tight to its identity rather than chasing trends. While other magazines from its era pivoted to match the internet's pace and failed, The New Yorker's deliberate, slow evolution protected its core value, proving that resistance to change can be a strength.