On one of the hottest days I the year, I hauled my ass and big blue case all over town for four meetings, sweating like an animal, and hoping I didn’t smell. I walked into Doug Peabody’s home/office not exactly understanding who he was, because I have been doing too much and am clearly a bozo. All I knew was that the editor of National Geographic Traveler (who loves Smith) gave me his email and said he invests in magazines. Doug was an early investor – maybe on the board? – of AOL. He was a founder of Health mag, Saveur (and its offshoots), and somehow was involved in George. He’s a little hard to get a read on and obviously very smart and the only person I’ve ever met with a conference room in his apartment. (more…)

I contend that in the history of magazine prototypes, no one’s gone from meeting a middle-aged Jewish guy running a major publishing company to jumping in a cab and running to a 28-year-old-half-Korean-half-black-all-hipster editor at Vibe in the same afternoon. (more…)