Daughter of an Israeli beauty queen. Went to Harvard at 15. One of the youngest anchors to ever appear on CNN, CNN Internationale, or CNN Headline News. Anchors the only show on CNBC to broadcast worldwide, among her other on-screen duties at the financial news network. Make no mistake: the Nicole Lapin mythology is very real, which is why she and her boyfriend-at-the-time—New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter—made the front of our Media Power Couples list not a few weeks ago, but the times, they've changed, and Ms. Lapin (like Mr. Stelter) is back on the market. Speak well, be smart, be accomplished, shoot the moon, avoid the red meat (not a euphemism: Ms. Lapin's a vegan) and you may just stand a chance with her, if you can cling onto her rising star without falling off of it, first.
Is this the year of the Jane Pratt comeback? It would seem so, as xoJane.com launched to decent accolades after a drought of Ms. Pratt in the post-Jane and Sassy era lead to a kind of Sassy revivalism. Legitimate question: Did she love that magazine as much as its biggest fangirl boosters? No matter: Ms. Pratt is effortlessly beautiful, still accomplished, and still inspires grown women to have a role model. She also had an affair with Drew Barrymore in the 90s. If you're, like, a wayward Gavin Rossdale or alternately, Gwen Stefani, you might have a shot. Otherwise, best of luck. Ms. Pratt's fleeting nature and high demand makes her an obvious pick for this list, for both sexes alike.
Remember when Arianna Huffington was a conservative pundit? That's because she has since all but completely eradicated that part of history by becoming one of the most successful female media moguls in history—everyone's—selling The Huffington Post for $315M to AOL this past February. But the last time Ms. Huffington went to the right was also around the same time she was married to Republican congressman Michael Huffington, who lost his '94 Senate race, and a year after him and Arianna divorced in '97, revealed he was a bisexual. And if the mister can switch sides, why the hell can't she? Arianna Huffington went to the left, to the left, and her career went to the stratosphere with it. Say what you will about The Huffington Post—and people do—but it worked, and Ms. Huffington's public persona (be it on Late Night With Bill Mahr or out on the town, party hopping among her boldfaced-named friends), at 61, Ms. Huffington remains charmingly witty, ever-relevant, and with that Greek accent intact, ever exotic as she's always been. [Fact: She did respond to a fact-check for making this list with her official title, above. We're not allowed to infer that she's looking, but she didn't protest making the list. So there's that, gentlemen. There is that.]
Girl Crush, indeed. How can you not? The uber-cool Times reporter on subjects technological—Ms. Wortham (above, right) writes about startups and often chronicles the city’s tech scene in the paper and on their Bits blog—is also a prolific Tweeter about her inbox, her articles, the tech world, and what she does for fun (yoga and “baking and muscle relaxers”). If you can pull her away from her smartphone for a moment, you might enjoy a conversation about Ms. Wortham’s favorite female icons: the Billyburg resident co-published Girl Crush, a zine about female-on-female admiration, with Thessaly La Force. If you make the cut, you might even elicit one of those infectious laughs of hers as well.
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No list of bachelorettes—no less the media-minded ones—would be remotely legitimate (or at least: as legitimate as these enterprises can be) without the inclusion of Ms. Doll. Formerly of Radar (3.0!) and OK, the Voice's Runnin' Scared blogger has been on a tear with the paper since last May, but it was her controversial cover story as ode to (or pep-talk, or psychotherapy session with) the single women of New York—The Plight of the Single Lady ("Dear Single Women of NYC: It's Not Them, It's You.")—that most recently put her on many a browser bookmark, and it wouldn't be hyperbole to suggest that the rise of Runnin' Scared as a metro blog really started with her. Don't let that adorable mug and syrupy-sweet Alabama-bred kindness fool you, though: Ms. Doll's ability to endure a wild night out, get up, and start posting away (commonly known around the office as "Dollstruction") comes second-to-none. If you can, an undeniable catch, this one.
Photo by Elizabeth Griffin.
If any of these ladies were ranked by utility, surely Miss Info (nee Minya Oh) would rank highly if not on top: a reporter and music journalist (The Source, Rolling Stone, BET) who's also done editor stints (Vibe, XXL); a radio host (New York City's world-renowned Hot 97; BBC Radio 1); an author (she wrote a book on hip hop fashion); and now, a power blogger (her hip hop news website associated with Complex: MissInfo.tv). She's also a Columbia graduate, but if you're not head over heels with the lovely Ms. Oh ("Info," for short) at this point—and you see her, up there, above these words, right?—we really can't help you. The only danger of dating the south side Chicago-native who resides in East Harlem, and is a fixture at any given time and place where anyone in hip hop wishes they could be? If you said "rappers," you're a racist. We're talking about her mom. She's difficult to impress.
Don’t drag the New Yorker staffer to your friend’s concert in Brooklyn. “I’d rather just sort of go to The Gap and come home. I’m not really engaged by, like, playing Frisbee and riding bikes,” the Harvard grad previously told The Observer. There’s no reason the reporter who brought Tavi Gevinson and Vampire Weekend into the pages of The New Yorker would want to cut herself off from the talk of the town when she...helps to oversee The Talk of the Town, right? Uh, either way, here we are, and we’ve bought you a bouquet of sensibly cut khakis, Lizzie!
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Is there anyone else you could see delivering NY1's Rail and Road Reports every morning? [Answer: An emphatic no.] It's reached the point where Jamie Shupak's work has elicited a sort of cult following—requisite fashion critique Tumblr and all—as Ms. Shupak recites the up-to-the-minute status of every piece of concrete and railway within the five boroughs and beyond like it's...well, it's the kind of information no human should be able to rattle off so articulately at such a speed so well, and yet: she does, without coffee, no less. It may explain the Emmy-nomination. In person? The West Villager with the "coolest single girl apartment there ever was" is painfully cute, utterly charming, and in her spare time, a dating columnist for hip hop lifestyle mag Complex, to boot. Resistance is futile.
Is Rina Raphael your ultimate Nice Jewish Girl dream? An exotic name, replete with alliteration. Actually, you know, goes to services sometimes (your mother would kvell). Hot? Clearly. Best of all, Ms. Raphael has the privilege of getting to work with—among other people—Kathie Lee and Hoda, the two lush mavens of Today's esteemed fourth hour. You would think this would drive a person to...drink? But Ms. Raphael has managed to stay the course with NBC, daytime sobriety, quick wits, down-to-earth sanity, and sultry, ever-present smile always intact. Rina, ditch the zero, and get with a hero. Or whoever we cut out of that picture.
This skinny Black Irish babe is always the best dressed gal in the room, and one of the New York Post’s finest feature writers. She got the boot from a trimming-down Gawker in 2008—but not before going to jail and doing a pin-up shoot for the site— yet those days are long behind Ms. McClear, who recently earned her literary stripes this summer with her memoir The Last of the Live Nude Girls, which recounted her early days in New York working in the peep booths of Times Square.
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A former blogger for New York’s Vulture blog , Ms. Zimmerman is now the brains (and face) of The Hairpin, the general interest site for ladies spun off from The Awl. She created a stir earlier this year with her—how would one put it?—ambiguous GQ cover profile of Captain America star Chris Evans.
Among the dozens of former New York Sun staffers populating newsrooms around the City, the sharp Ms. Karni landed at the News Corp. building as a features writer for the New York Post and Page Six Magazine.
The New Yorker's Book Bench editor might be anti-eReader, but she's more of a Tumblr blogger than the just-like-the-magazine-only-online reporters who share her office: she recently used the page to write about encountering a “Hipster Lit” bookseller in the Hamptons and compared herself to Emily Gould when recounting a conversation with then-colleague Thessaly LaForce “in our boutique clothes, our accessories jangling like mad.” Of note, her hustle. Besides the fact that she co-founded said Book Bench after four years at the magazine, at the end of her New Yorker bio, it reads: "Prior to The New Yorker, Halford worked as a nanny." Uh, awesome? She's currently working on a book for Knopf entitled Devotion about evangelical devotional literature; arm yourself with decent smarts if you're looking to get the good word past this one, let alone your phone number.
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The original Page Six-stress now long gone for the likes of... Baghdad? It's true. After retiring her number at the infamous New York Post gossip column, Ms. Froelich has taken her talents to the novel (her thinly-veiled account of life in New York, Mercury In Retrograde, did pretty well: an NYT bestseller) and more than a few freelance gigs of late, including the Observer's recent cover on Sarah Jessica Parker and Harvey Weinstein's fashion fiasco. In fact, one of said recent freelance gigs ended up with her (specifically: her byline) in Playboy. In Iraq. On a tourist trip. If this all sounds like a terrible idea, it was, but it was also terribly funny, as Ms. Froelich often is, even more so now that she's seemingly more laid back these days not punching the clock for the Gossip Gods. Maybe it's time for her to settle down? As always, potential suitors will have to make their way past the original man in Paula's life: Karl Froelich, her dachshund, will come after you. He once bit Mike Ovitz in the balls. True story. Imagine what he'll do to Paula's dates.
Music obsessives know Maura Johnston, who earned her stripes on indie music message boards, but for the laymen, she’s been pop music criticism’s feminist-in-residence since serving as a founding editor of the once-Gawker Media owned Idolator. A latter-day Ellen Willis, Maura’s since ascended to Village Voice music editor, but not before a stint manning MLB.com—yeah guys, she can talk baseball better than you—and constantly putting the Voice's music section in Idolator's crosshairs, and yet, when Maura was retired from the site, even the Voice mourned. Now, she steers the ship. Most importantly, know this: Maura's inclusion was one of the few unanimous votes in compiling this list. Unless you're one of the artists likely well-deserving of her vicious critical savagings, there are few if any who have a single bad thing to say about the painfully funny, utterly kind, and genuinely awesome Ms. Johnston.
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Canadian. Lawyer. Jewish. Left corporate law gigs for media. Worked for MediaBistro. Worked for Huffington Post. Worked for Dan Abrams as a launch editor for Mediaite and vehemently defended her boss from the attacks of awful bloggers. Founder of Change The Ratio, an initiative to put more women in tech and media and Charitini, a way of holding parties by getting people to drink and alchemizing their booze-money into charity dollars. Obsessed with ladyparts. Power Grid ranking currently unavailable. Likes tall men. Once dated Rex. Not afraid to send you angry emails when angry, like the one we'll inevitably get for this. Finally, remains hot as ever. Rachel Sklar is a force of nature.
That is all.
If you found this year’s GQ comedy issue funnier, weirder, webbier, and bawdier than what one might expect from 4 Times Square (like, say, playing Fuck/Marry/Kill with Larry King, a guide to sexting called Ur 8===D Is GR8, or a fake oral history of Gigli), much of the credit goes to new senior editor Lauren Bans, schooled in the fast-and-loose mold of blogs like This Recording, breeding ground for the Brown alumni media mafia. Before GQ nabbed Ms. Bans from her post as culture writer for the Daily, she was a regular blogger on Slate’s feminist site, XX. Don’t let the antic humor and ruthless takedowns fool you, really she’s just a nice Jewish girl from Mennesoota. For a good time, follow her Twitter.
Her Twitter proclaims that you “probably met her at a party” and unless you live under a rock or outside of Manhattan, you probably did. The former Guest of a Guest-er moves culture circle to culture circle seamlessly, though when she jumped the fence over to the Dan Abrams’ Magic Kingdom of TV recaps and screen-steals and fights with Forbes bloggers, some of us didn't take it well. What does she do there? Throws parties, of course! To be fair, Sarah's days as a blogger often betray her current gig: she might be the one hosting these fetes, but she's very often the most fun person to talk to in the room, too. The know-it-all—really, one of those people in a room who knows everything that's happening with everyone at a given moment— is a knockout, too, you may have noticed. It doesn't escape her many (attempted) suitors, either.
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The accomplished Ms. Hempel may mean business during the day—she was once an innovation editor for four years at BusinessWeek before moving on to Fortune—but after hours we hear she's sweet as a pea. And oh, by the way: Ladies, this one's looking, and she's looking for you.
Your eyes aren’t misleading you—and yes, we remember that envy-inducing The Selby spread of Ms. Singer’s envy-inducing Chelsea Hotel family manse. We hear that the T editor—recruited to the Times glossy away from Vogue, where despite her relative disdain for fashion she was considered a rising star—is eligible once more after her marriage to Netherland author Joseph O’Neill slipped into the netherlands. Be prepared to discuss your favorite contemporary novel and whether it’s a comedy or a tragedy—the chic Ms. Singer previously worked at the London Review of Books.
"I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE SLOANE!" one editor didn't demand but might as well have. Yeah, right. Like we weren't going to put Sloane in here. There is little left to say about the self-effacing Ms. Crosley which hasn't already been articulated in the form of rightfully-earned hyperbole, be it the “Helen of Troy of New York Publishing” as one Observer editor once called her, or “The Most Popular Publicist in the City” as one Observer profile once called her, a title so obviously begging for scrutiny that Gawker would rip it to shreds, and tried to, except: they failed. Two solid books later and Ms. Crosley ditched the day job as a publicist at Random House—see ya, suckers!—for freelance gigs and more writing and intensely awkward-as-they-are-charming appearances on late night TV shows. Now she's just writing these days, and oh, yeah, we're supposed to talk about your prospects with her? Last known flings: Olympic gold-medalist speed skater Joey Cheek (whose previous paramour was Georgina Bloomberg, until he got Sloane's number), the guy who signed Death Cab for Cutie to Atlantic, and the guy who helped set up Dave Eggers' school in Darfur. Yeah, good luck with that, buddy. It's Sloane's New York, we just live in it.
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Do not sass Ms. Shafrir. The half-Israeli former New York Observer and two-time Gawker writer will have no truck with your nonsense, and dish it right back to you, generally served cold. That isn't to say she doesn't know how to cook up a good dish, both of the conversational stripe—ever the Gawker-er, she's perpetually well-informed as to the goings-on of seemingly all—and of the culinary (her yearly Hanukkah bash yields a "goddamn solid latke." And she does indeed have a sweet side: the March ode to her dog in the pages of the Times was one of the more memorable tearjerkers in the last year—and the Doree Loyalists in the newsroom swear by her as "disarming" both in regards to looks ("Israeli girls!") and charisma, or what one even went so far as to describe as "feminine gravitas." Sounds about right.
A reporter at The Wall Street Journal for about half a decade, Ms. Crow graduated from Columbia Journalism School in 2000 and has been become a fixture at international art fairs and in auction rooms in recent years, covering the art market. A Sagittarius with golden locks, Ms. Crow was born and raised in Edmond, Oklahoma, and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma. Before joining the Journal, she cut her teeth in the City section of The New York Times, from 2000 to 2004. Her connections in the art world mean that one lucky man could have the opportunity (or task) of accompanying her to a bevy of tony art events. Are you that special "and guest"?
Megan McCarthy is pretty popular for someone who’s been working out of her apartment in Brooklyn since she moved from San Francisco less than a year ago—a function of the outsize influence of Mediagazer, the media news aggregator of which she is the founding editor, and her West Coast likeability, which betrays her past as a tech gossip for Gawker Media's relentlessly vicious Valleywag. She’s easy to spot at tech and media parties, if you’re not too intimidated to approach her. She knows literally everyone and seriously rocks high heels. 2010 Best New Media Imports, 9.2.
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Don't mistake the soft-spoken Sadie Stein for a softie: the former Jezebel writer will "cut a muh." With her razor-sharp intellect, that is. Ms. Stein is universally loved, quirks—like the time she lugged a doll replete with matching dress along with her to fashion week and became a micro-sensation there—and all. In May, the inevitable came to fruition, as Ms. Stein joined the staff of the Paris Review, likely the first and only transition from a Gawker Media property like it. "Well-dressed," "really cute," "remarkably smart," and that's just from a poll of the women we spoke with. Gentlemen, Sadie Stein could be your Literature MFA dream girl, just without the $50K in tuition: unlike her Paris Review co-worker Thessaly La Force, Ms. Stein will not be shipping off to the Iowa Writers Workshop any time soon. Try not to test your luck: move fast.
Provided you're on the right side of it, her charm is irreplaceable. Another graduate of the Rachelle Hruska Finishing School for Aspiring Gadabouts, Carson Griffith now hits up, like, 20 parties a night for the Daily News’ Gatecrasher column. She files her celeb gossip to boss Frank DiGiacomo. How do you know Ms. Griffith is at a party? Oh, you know—she’s not one to make a inconspicuous entrance. In his new novel The Junket, Mike Albo, the Times writer exiled for taking the book's namesake junket, describes the Carson Grifftih character, “Jayne,” thusly: “very tan and attractive,” talking “loudly with a Schnapps-braised, raspy voice as if she had spent all four years at U.S.C. screaming at parties.” It was actually William & Mary, but apart from that, Mr. Albo’s dead right: stories of Ms. Griffith famously include her setting her hair on fire at 1Oak. Yet, it's part of her now infamous appeal: Ms. Griffith is as sharp a gossip reporter as they come, always has somewhere fun to be, and will never show you anything but the best of times, while generally keeping her composure all the same, hair ablaze or not, professionalism intact throughout.
Yes, we know: another nice Jewish girl Yalie? Absolutely. How many others do you know who can rattle off as many characters from fantasy novels as they can Ludacris guest verses in the same breath? The Washingtonian, The Atlantic, The New Republic, ThinkProgress: Ms. Rosenberg has made the rounds of highbrow, D.C.-based culture publications, with good reason. Among them, she's funny, quick, and her astute observations about pop culture are usually stunningly on-point. Despite the many times New York publications have tempted her, she has remained—to our loss—in that wretched pit of a town with all the national landmarks in it to the south. Nevertheless, by the New Yorkers familiar with her, she is universally nerdcrushed-upon. It helps that she's pretty cute, too.
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Scooped up by Page Six after a stint at the Washington Examiner’s Yeas and Nays column, Tara Palmeri has brought her D.C.-bred repertorial instincts to the city’s premiere gossip column, and has survived her rookie year both in the city and column alarmingly well. She moved here last summer after taking over the Post desk vacated by Neel Shah, and she even sublet his apartment for good measure. (She’s since moved out of the party den.) But beware, boys—Tara’s not afraid to use the same feminine wiles that have upset the likes of—among others (such is the life of a gossip)—Sean Penn, who kicked her out of an event once.
So, uh, let's see. Devorah Rose is pretty famous. Isn't this, like, her ninth Styles profile? Wasn't she on that reality show about socialites? Either way, we emailed her for fact-check, and learned the following things from an assistant:
This weekend she co-hosted a benefit with Russell Simmons at the Social Life Estate for Somaly Mam. Also - she just had a blacktie fete last Thursday that was filmed for Cake Boss. Devorah ordered a very special cake - the cake was adorned with 30 million dollars worth of diamonds and is the most expensive cake ever made. The reason she did this was to celebrate the motto by which she lives her life - "Make The Impossible, Possible." She also cohosted Martini For Mutts, which raised money for dogs in their 11th hour, who need to find a home. Next up she will be celebrating a cov
Yeah, we're gonna stop there. Ms. Rose has important cakes and dogs and all that noise. Reality show cameras, sometimes. Obviously powerful, a bachelorette, from what we understand, and if you're man enough to deal with the harsh light of semi-national stardom, Ms. Rose probably has a waiver for you to sign. She's also "obviously hot." Actual quote from judging panelist.
After spending time at Tina Brown’s Daily Beast, Ms. Syme headed to an ever-so-brief spell at the New York Public Library. She has written for Elle, Radar, Page Six Magazine, Jane, The Observer, The Millions, and GQ. Currently at work on a book on F. Scott Fitzgerald mistress Sheila Graham, Ms. Syme is heard to have spoken on the matter of her previous dalliance with Ryan Adams by more than a few Observer staffers, which, when asked for quote, she adamantly denies: "not entirely accurate" but "he is a good friend."
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Are you cool enough to court a lady cool enough to hang with/be picked up on by Big Boi of Outkast? The perennially best-dressed New York Times staffer held a number of high-profile positions within the paper of record—including Boldface Names stringer, UrbanEye (RIP) editor, and Carpetbagger blogger—before going fulltime at the Arts desk. Brilliant, funny, ambitious, smartassed: Melena, we'll bust open the paywall for you any day.
The pen behind esoteric literary k-hole Thought Catalog's more cognizant entries, Kelley Hoffman can give you the lowdown on the Hamptons, fashion week, and the Beatrice with the insight of someone who's been there. Because she has! These days the platinum blonde lends her wit to Elle, which sends her to the best parties in the city and asks her for a smart recap. She always delivers. If you want your dating life to be fodder on the blogosphere Kelley is the girl for you.
After spending time as Joanne Lipman’s assistant at the ill-fated Portfolio, Ms. Killingsworth found a home a few floors up, as the “A-issue” editor of The New Yorker (that’s Eustace Tilley-speak for assistant managing editor, more or less). Her byline also occasionally appears on the magazine’s hors d’oeuvre of a restaurant column, Tables for Two.
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Certainly one of the chicer young ladies on the list (think heroine in a Goddard film), Ms. Whitney has even been featured as an on-the-street fashion muse in Vogue UK (see above). A denizen of the L.E.S., she is currently an editor at New York’s weddings guide. She has contributed to New York and The New York Times.
This picture of Peggy Noonan was brought to you by the Letter 'S.' For swoon.
She may pal around with coupled-up media dreamboats Molly Young and Alice Gregory, but this Columbia alumna doesn't yet have a boy to call her own. She's currently contributing to Andy Warhol's vanity mag, but it'll take more than an Interview to secure things with the beautiful Ms. Chew-Bose. If you've boned up on This Recording back issues, though, you may be in luck.
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This Brown grad and Columbia University Spencer Fellow has docked bylines at The American Prospect, Slate, BusinessWeek, The Daily Beast, The New Republic, The Guardian, and The Nation, among others, writing about education, mostly. For her Brown senior thesis, she once explored the world of the flâneuse. We'll let her explain it, but basically: we like her stuff, she's kinda brilliant, and we think she's cute, or as the nominator who put her our way explained: "total babe" and "super, super sweet." Sometimes, it's as basic as that.
Once a lowly fact-checker at The New Yorker, Ms. Ioffe, who is something of an expert on things Russian (we hear David Remnick also has a passing interest in that country), has graduated to contributor to the magazine. In addition she has written for other smart-people pubs like Foreign Policy, The New Republic and The New York Observer. (Side note, she has what is possibly the best-designed personal website).
Since August 2010, Ms. Kessler has been a features writer at social media blog Mashable. According to her bio on the site, her beat is “entrepreneurs as well as emerging technology trends in education, politics and fun.” (What a fun job, covering trends in fun!). She’s a Medill graduate and has also contributed to Sierra Magazine and Inc.
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Once the Grey Lady’s tireless party-hopping doyenne of the night, Sarah Maslin Nir is now a full-blown Times staff writer taking on everything that happens after the sun goes down. That means investigating the London riots, chilling with Alec Baldwin, and heading to Colorado for some mutton busting. But Nocturnalist fans, fear not! She’s graciously oursourced the column to a spate of talented stringers. And she hasn’t abandoned the world of fashion and nightlife quite yet. A recent Ms. Maslin Nir story? “At the Algonquin, Herding Cats on the Runway”
Let’s put it this way: If you got a text from Lauren Leto last night, you’re probably doing pretty well for yourself. The Detroit beauty came to the city last year to capitalize on the success of Texts From Last Night, the addictive and often hilarious compendium of drunk messages you’ll never remember sending. Now she’s got a new startup, Bnter, and she’s making the Makery seem like a pretty damn cool place to be working these days. Oh, there’s also that book she’s writing. If you can keep up with the lovely Lauren Leto—and deal with her famous friends, like Tucker Max, who gave the 'TFLN' book a blurb—get her digits and send her a text that’s classy enough to keep it off her site.
No matter what celebs and models are in the room or on the runway, chances are Alessandra Codinha is the prettiest girl at the party. The young WWD party reporter has been baffling photographers and fellow writers with her striking looks and never-dull ensembles, but its her way with words that’s the real catch. In addition to filling The Eye section with dispatches from glamorous outings, she’s started profiling the perky upstarts just making names for themselves on the party circuit. Try and secure a date soon, though—Fashion Week is right around the corner, and by then she’ll be wedded to the runway.
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Jada Yuan's a lifer at New York, or so it would seem: the New Mexico native once turned the art of Party Lines into a science, and has never had a problem speaking frankly—very, very frankly—with the stripe of boldfaced names most mere mortals simply try not to appear as if they're gawking at them, which they usually are, though chances are if it's in a public space, Ms. Yuan's been in range, getting that perfect quote. For that job, one needs an ice-cool demeanor and endless patience for listening to someone else talk. Yet, after doing that for so long and hanging up her party-reporting jersey—Ms. Yuan is now a full-time features editor at New York—maybe someone should listen to Jada talk for a little, you know? And you know who that someone could be? You.
Ms. Meltzer represents a strong showing for Nice Jewish (Riot) Grrls on the list, not just as the author of Girl Power—a history of feminism and 90s music—but also as co-author (with Kara Jesella) of How Sassy Changed My Life, with bylines for the New York Times, The Daily, and The Daily Beast as well, among other places. Also, have you been to one of her parties? Great apartment. Now you know.
Having come out the high-minded journalism boot camp that is the Harper's internship, Ms. Markowitz spent time as an assistant editor at that magazine before moving on to a similarly heady role as associate literary editor at The Nation—from America's oldest monthly to America's oldest weekly? Impressive. Her recent piece on Janet Malcolm is more than worth a read. We also hear she whips up a heck of a seder. [Photo by Sean Hemmerle.]
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Is the New York Times’ toughest book critic single? Who knows! Her reclusive nature is what makes the 56 year-old Yale alumna one of the list’s most alluring figures—unlike most media singles, you can’t simply plan on running into her at the next n+1 party. Making a move on Michiko requires creativity and energy, but after that, there’s little risk: Even if she shoots you down, you’ll be in the esteemed company of Susan Sontag, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth and Lorrie Moore.
Recently departed as features editor of WSJ. Magazine, the Wall Street Journal’s luxury lifestyle supplement, Ms. Murray has spent time at Hamptons Style, Marie Claire and Vogue.
The girls of Cosmopolitan don't really make their way around the media scene; well-insulated in the cold, dwarfing confines of the Hearst building, they're foot soldiers for the brand, usually. But Ms. Kylstra's name came our way, and you can't deny the power of the woman who writes all the columns about sex everyone's boyfriend secretly reads in the dentist's office. And that is her.
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A COMMON REACTION among those selected for The Observer’s 2011 Media Bachelorettes list? See here.
But there’s no need to be embarrassed. After all, as it’s been said, girls run the world. And in New York City’s media industry, they’ve certainly been killing it lately, as you’ll note from the list of media bachelorettes, which follow yesterday’s look at media’s bachelors.
Who’s on the list? Some men have wanted to take a guess. Some men have taken a guess. Some men have been noted as having been with no less than three of the women on the same list.
And yet, it does speak to a certain consistency: what these ladies are looking for are indeed a rare breed. Their power often precedes their looks (i.e. you’ve likely heard of them, read them, or felt their impact, long before you’ve seen them), their intellect is a style onto itself, to say nothing of the way they actually style themselves. Matching wits with them? Forget about it. More men have likely been shot down trying to pick up these women than were in the Pacific Theater, and with some of the more outgoing ones, more viciously, too. Be you man or fellow lady, fan or foe, whether you have unilateral praise for or pointed individual gripes with these women, one thing is certain: they are unarguably accomplished both in the office and outside of it, and we’re proud to have them on this list.
The criterion for making it? As it’s already been said: We have to think of you. We have to agree with the inclusion. And we have to hold you in a specific regard, the propriety formula for which—a sampling: sugar, spice, everything nice, rare earth, hybrid compound chemicals, and sheer cosmic force—will remain forever locked away deep in The Observer‘s grey file cabinet. And who knows? Maybe, one day, some of these Power Bachelorettes can join our Power Bachelors and together, make Media Power Couple magic.
Or, as you’ll soon see, not. But we can all be romantics for a slide or fifty, no?
Without further ado: Ladies? The floor is yours.