Jann Wenner – Man of the Past

NRO ^ | 19 Sep 2017 | Kvin Williamson

[Rummyfan]

What to make of the career of Jann Wenner, who is selling the magazine he founded, Rolling Stone, capping a remarkable career in publishing?

In the Age of Trump, we are instructed to admire successful businessmen, those who have, as the president likes to put it, “built a great company.” Wenner is nothing if not that. In 1967, he borrowed $7,500 from his family, including his future in-laws, about $50,000 in contemporary terms. Wenner is a child of privilege (he was a few years behind Maureen Reagan at the Chadwick School) and that loan was nothing to sniff at, but with that relatively small endowment he built a magazine that became a household name — a magazine that still keeps the attention of 1.5 million readers even in these declining days of print. Originally a newspaper, Rolling Stone has gone through many iterations, most famously as a large-format glossy in the 1980s — everything was glossy and large-format in the Reagan years. If you would like to hear a great deal about how very difficult it is to sustain a high-quality magazine full of controversial content, come to a National Review event and buttonhole our publisher. Wenner did not merely endure, but made a great fortune out of it.

He did it the old-fashioned way: by publishing a lot of meretricious junk. Wenner sometimes aped the style and the feel of the radical-underground press of the 1960s and 1970s, but he always has been a capitalist of the old school. His politics may be impeccably progressive, but, as Robert Conquest observed, everyone is a conservative when it comes to his own business.

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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $183.00 dollars and cents to 93.00%

[Bodleian_Girl]

He should have sold in ‘92.

Now, who would want it? Publishing is over.

[sparklite2]

I notice the defamation lawsuit by the UVA (?) students accused falsely of gang rape by RS is cleared to go ahead. Anyone buying Rolling Stone now is looking at future litigation that could be devastating.

[bigbob]

[God luvs America]

I believed they finally settled for $1.6 million- a pittance as they should’ve lost $100million...

i gave up on Rolling Stone in the 70’s- the self proclaimed authority on rock and roll did nothing but trash the mighty Led Zeppelin as they roamed the world and kicked butt in the 70’s...they finally came around 20+ years later when Page/Plant got back together and woke up to what everyone else knew since 1969...

Plus their fawning over bruce springsteen (whom i can’t stand) the past 40 years is embarrassing...

[M-cubed]

His politics may be impeccably progressive, but, as Robert Conquest observed, everyone is a conservative when it comes to his own business.<<

Pretty well Sums it up.....Don't it!!!....

If only free enterprise "DIDN'T" work....

[sparklite2]

This was published this afternoon ...

Rolling Stone magazine is facing a defamation suit — again — as a federal appeals court ruled that three former University of Virginia students have a plausible case that they were personally implicated in a now-retracted story about an alleged gang rape.

The lawsuit began more than two years ago but was dismissed by a district court. Now the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has said the case should move forward, at least in part.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/19/552090031/fraternity-members-defamation-case-against-rolling-stone-can-proceed-court-says

[ifinnegan]

Zeppelin sucked. (So’d Rolling Stone)

Music for closet cases.

[ifinnegan]

“Plus their fawning over bruce springsteen (whom i can’t stand) the past 40 years is embarrassing...”

Springsteen is insufferable. God awful boring garbage. (Same as Zep, pretty much).

[Dilbert San Diego]

Well everyone has their own music preferences.

I like softer music such as Gordon Lightfoot and Barry manilow . Not really rock nut was popular with many at different times.

[ifinnegan]

“meretricious”

I had to look up this word. I’m glad I did. It’s a good word to know.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I liked Rolling Stone’s series “Fear & Loathing”...

[ifinnegan]

“More recently, Matt Taibbi gave the magazine a real claim to continued relevance with his reporting on the financial crisis and various shenanigans associated with it. “

Whoever wrote this is a dolt.

Tabibi is a psycho moon bat 100%

[utahagen]

“Plus their fawning over bruce springsteen (whom i can’t stand) the past 40 years is embarrassing...”

At least when Rolling Stone fawns over Springsteen, it's writing about MUSIC! Seeing Obama on the cover made me want to throw up.

[a fool in paradise]

>>Wenner sent Hunter S. Thompson tear-assing around the world to invent a new kind of journalism

Print the legend I guess.

Hunter lived and wrote Hell’s Angels before there was a Rolling Stoned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Angels:_The_Strange_and_Terrible_Saga_of_the_Outlaw_Motorcycle_Gangs

Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs is a book written by Hunter S. Thompson, first published in 1966 by Random House. It was widely lauded for its up-close and uncompromising look at the Hells Angels motorcycle club, during a time when the gang was highly feared and accused of numerous criminal activities. The New York Times described Thompson’s portrayal as “a world most of us would never dare encounter.”[3][4]

It was Thompson’s first published book and his first attempt at a nonfiction novel.

[j. earl carter]

I like softer music such as Gordon Lightfoot and Barry manilow...

Oh yeah?

Here’s what I like:

https://youtu.be/sl751CDdRZI

(go ahead and click it, you won’t be disappointed)

[a fool in paradise]

>>The high-minded magazine also once fired a guy for writing a negative review of a Hootie and the Blowfish record.

This from a magazine that gave 0 star reviews to the first albums by AC/DC, The Police, and others

[ifinnegan]

“Hunter lived and wrote Hell’s Angels before there was a Rolling Stoned.”

Yes.

Thompson did more to make Rolling Stone than vice versa.

[Colinsky]

In its earliest newspaper-format version, Rolling Stone was just about the most important magazine in the world to me. But it was the gonzo journalism that held my attention. FEAR AND LOATHING, and the early version of Tom Wolfe’s THE RIGHT STUFF. The music stuff I could take or leave. My interest in the ‘zine faded away by the end of the 70s and I never looked at it again.