By The Editors 7:12pm

Opening Shot

(FILES) This combo shows file pictures o

Considering the Unexpected Departures

So Kim Jong Il, Christopher Hitchens and former Czech president Václav Havel walk up to Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates of Heaven …

If you’ve been lost in the static of radio silence this past week, you must be thinking, “What a witty opener for that Upper West Side Christmas party!” Unfortunately, the humor is coarsened by the fact that the North Korean supreme leader, outspoken British-turned-American intellectual and Eastern European politician moonlighting as everything under the literary sun all passed away this weekend. We can’t help but imagine Mr. Hitchens being amused by the inevitable comparisons that one could draw between him and the company he’ll be keeping in the newsworthy obits this week: The pages of which will be filled with terms like “revolutionary,” “tyrannical,” “egomaniacal” and “possibly insane.” (And that’s just for Mr. Hitchens!) It’s dark humor, of course, but did the Vanity Fair contributing editor know any other kind? Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 9/14/11 3:59pm

Changes

bestofny

Vanity Fair Nabs New York Design Director Chris Dixon

Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter has poached Chris Dixon, New York magazine’s design director, according to an internal memo sent out today.

Longtime VF design director David Harris is reducing his role at the magazine.

Mag Culture points out that Mr. Dixon has held is own at New York since graduating from the Luke Hayman school of magazine design. Hugo Lindgren, formerly of New York, tweeted his congrats.

Full memo below. Read More

By Emily Witt 9/13/11 7:55pm

Freelancing

William T. Vollmann on assignment in Japan for Byliner Originals. (Photo from Byliner)

$2 a Word? Chump Change! With Byliner and Atavist, Hungry Freelance Writers Seek Out Alternatives To Magazine Work

When the journalist David Dobbs first had the idea of writing an article about his mother’s love affair with a flight surgeon during World War II, he initially went the traditional route: he pitched the story to several magazines. Mr. Dobbs, who has written for The New York Times Magazine, Wired and National Geographic, usually writes about science, so the piece was a bit of a departure. The magazines he approached turned him down. He suspected at the time that the scale of the story was one problem—it was a complicated tale, hard to fit in a magazine, even at 6,000 or 8,000 words. Dedicated to his story despite the rejections, Mr. Dobbs started talking to Evan Ratliff, editor and co-founder of the online startup The Atavist, a self-described “boutique publishing house” that produces non-fiction articles for e-readers and smart phones. Read More