Cool on cool

Cool on cool
: Inside the small and self-important world of New York media, this is intriguing news: Kurt Andersen has been hired as editorial director and chairman of Colors, Benetton’s magazine, and he, in turn, had the good sense to hire Simon Dumenco — of the aforelinked New York Magazine column on bloggers — as editor of the magazine to “recapture the buzz it had in the mid-1990’s.”

Andersen was a founder of Spy and Inside and now he’s the host of my other favorite radio show, Studio 360 (which will continue). He’s one of the most admired guys I know in this small and self-important New York media scene. I’m delighted to see that a guy my age can still be hired to recapture buzz. Dumenco, who columnizes for both NY Mag and Folio, is — and I’m not just saying this because he flogged blogs today — the best low-key critic of media around now; he has an engaging viewpoint and voice and he’s the guy who was smart enough to hire Elizabeth Spiers away from Gawker for New York.

I haven’t looked at Colors in years. Now I will. Smart hires.

2 responses to “Cool on cool”

  1. Otter Avatar

    “recapture the buzz it had in the mid-1990’s.”
    Did Colors have any buzz ever? I’ve heard nothing about any part of Bennetton* since Americans stopped dressing like the characters in Molly Ringwald movies in the late ’80s. Except for some wholly artificial “controversy” they’d periodically generate.
    * Apart from their ski equipment subsidiaries, anyway.

  2. John Edwards Avatar
    John Edwards

    Heartily agreed, they’re both talented editors, and it’ll be interesting to see what they do with Colors. By the way, it’s Andersen, not Anderson.
    [ damn. i keep making that dumb mistake. thanks, editor. =jeff ]