The first issue of The New Yorker, published on the 21st of February 1925, featured a cover illustration of a dandy peering at a butterfly through a monocle, a drawing by Rea Irvin that would become the magazine's most enduring symbol. This image, based on an 1834 caricature of the Count d'Orsay, introduced a character named Eustace Tilley, who was created by Corey Ford to serve as the magazine's mascot. The character appeared on the inside front cover of the August 8 issue that same year, depicted as a younger man in a morning coat and striped formal trousers, a figure who would go on to appear in promotional materials and on covers for decades. The magazine was founded by Harold Ross, a former reporter for The New York Times, and his wife Jane Grant, who was also a reporter for the same publication. Together with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann, they established the F-R Publishing Company and set up the magazine's first office in Manhattan at 25 West 45th Street. Ross wanted to create a sophisticated humor magazine that would be different from the corny humor publications of the time, such as Judge or the old Life. He declared in a 1925 prospectus that the magazine was not edited for the old lady in Dubuque, signaling its intent to target a cosmopolitan, urban audience rather than the rural or small-town readership of other periodicals.
The Editor And The Fact Checker
Harold Ross edited The New Yorker until his death in 1951, shaping the magazine's editorial tone and standards with a rigorous approach to fact-checking that became integral to its reputation. The magazine's fact-checking procedures were developed after an 1927 article about Edna St. Vincent Millay contained multiple factual errors, leading her mother to threaten a libel suit. By the 1940s, this extensive fact-checking operation had become a defining feature of the publication, with about 30 people working in the department as of 2025. Ross's successor, William Shawn, who edited the magazine from 1951 to 1987, was an extremely shy and introverted figure who maintained the magazine's traditional appearance and editorial standards. Shawn's tenure saw the publication of John Hersey's essay Hiroshima, which filled an entire issue shortly after the end of World War II, and the work of nonfiction authors like Dwight Macdonald, Kenneth Tynan, and Hannah Arendt, whose Eichmann in Jerusalem reportage appeared in the magazine before being published as a book. The magazine's editorial staff unionized in 2018, and The New Yorker Union signed its first collective bargaining agreement in 1921, reflecting the growing importance of its writers and editors.
The Cartoon And The Dog
The New Yorker has featured cartoons since its inception in 1925, with a stable of cartoonists that includes Charles Addams, Peter Arno, James Thurber, and Saul Steinberg, among many others. The magazine's cartoon editor, Lee Lorenz, served from 1956 to 1998, and his book The Art of the New Yorker: 1925, 1995 was the first comprehensive survey of all aspects of the magazine's graphics. One of the most famous cartoons, drawn by Peter Steiner in 1993, depicts two dogs at a computer with one saying, On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog, which has generated more than $100,000 in licensing and reprinting fees split between Steiner and the magazine. The magazine also introduced The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest in April 2005, where readers submit captions for captionless cartoons by regular cartoonists, with three finalists chosen and the winner voted on by the public. The magazine's cartoons have reached a higher plateau of fame, with phrases like I say it's spinach and back to the drawing board entering the vernacular, and the magazine's cartoons have been featured in films and television shows, including Seinfeld and The Simpsons.
The New Yorker is known for its illustrated and often topical covers, with only two covers featuring photography as of the latest data. The magazine's most famous cover, View of the World from 9th Avenue, was created by Saul Steinberg for the 29th of March 1976 issue, depicting a map of the world as seen by self-absorbed New Yorkers, with the rest of the United States reduced to the size of three New York City blocks. The cover inspired many similar works, including the poster for the 1984 film Moscow on the Hudson, which led to a lawsuit that held Columbia Pictures violated Steinberg's copyright. The magazine has also produced controversial covers, such as the 1993 Valentine's Day issue by Art Spiegelman, which depicted a black woman and a Hasidic Jewish man kissing, referencing the Crown Heights riot of 1991, and the 2008 cover by Barry Blitt, which depicted Barack Obama in a turban and shalwar kameez, fist bumping with his wife, Michelle, portrayed with an Afro and wearing camouflage trousers with an assault rifle slung over her back. These covers have sparked national debates about satire, race, and politics, with the magazine defending its intent to satirize the vicious and racist attacks and rumors about the Obamas that have been floating around in the blogosphere.
The Writer And The Story
The New Yorker has published short stories by many of the most respected writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Truman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov, Alice Munro, and J. D. Salinger. The publication of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery drew more mail than any other story in the magazine's history, and the magazine has been a platform for serious fiction, essays, and journalism for a national and international audience. The magazine's editorial staff has included writers like E. B. White, James Thurber, and Dorothy Parker, who were part of the Algonquin Round Table, and the magazine has been a source of inspiration for multiple films, including Brokeback Mountain, The Hours, and Adaptation. The magazine's influence on American literature has been significant, with Kurt Vonnegut saying that The New Yorker has been an effective instrument for getting a large audience to appreciate modern literature, and Tom Wolfe writing that The New Yorker style was one of leisurely meandering understatement, droll when in the humorous mode, tautological and litotical when in the serious mode.
The Editor And The Digital Age
David Remnick has been the editor of The New Yorker since 1998, succeeding Tina Brown, who edited the magazine from 1992 to 1998 and introduced color to the editorial pages and photography, with less type on each page and a generally more modern layout. The magazine has adapted to the digital era, maintaining its traditional print operations while expanding its online presence, including making its archives available on the Internet and introducing a digital version of the magazine. In 2014, The New Yorker opened up online access to its archive, expanded its plans to run an ambitious website, and launched a paywalled subscription model. The magazine's editorial staff unionized in 2018, and The New Yorker Union signed its first collective bargaining agreement in 2021, reflecting the growing importance of its writers and editors. The magazine has also published comics journalism, with occasional stories by cartoonists like Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Barry Blitt, and Art Spiegelman, and has launched a crossword puzzle series with a weekday crossword published every Monday, as well as a second, weekend crossword that appears on Fridays.
The Reader And The Politics
The New Yorker is read nationwide, with 53% of its circulation in the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas, and according to a 2009 survey-based estimate of magazine audiences by MediaMark Research, the average New Yorker reader was 47.8 years old, with a household income of $91,359. Politically, the magazine's readership holds generally liberal views, with 77% of The New Yorker's readers having left-of-center political values, and 52% of them holding consistently liberal political values. The magazine has endorsed presidential candidates since 2004, choosing Democratic nominees John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden over Republican opponents George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Donald Trump. The magazine has also published articles about eccentric evangelist Creflo Dollar, the different ways in which humans perceive the passage of time, and Münchausen syndrome by proxy, covering an eclectic array of topics. The magazine's influence and significance have been recognized by the American Society of Magazine Editors, which voted the 24th of September 2001 cover by Art Spiegelman as being among the top ten magazine covers of the past 40 years, and by the Pew Research Center, which ranked The New Yorker highest in college-educated readership among major American media outlets in 2012.
The Legacy And The Future
The New Yorker has won eleven Pulitzer Prizes since 2014, the first year magazines became eligible for the prize, and has been a platform for serious fiction, essays, and journalism for a national and international audience. The magazine has been a source of inspiration for multiple films, including Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, which is an overt homage to the magazine, and has been a platform for writers like Truman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov, and Alice Munro. The magazine's editorial staff has included writers like E. B. White, James Thurber, and Dorothy Parker, who were part of the Algonquin Round Table, and the magazine has been a source of inspiration for multiple films, including Brokeback Mountain, The Hours, and Adaptation. The magazine's influence on American literature has been significant, with Kurt Vonnegut saying that The New Yorker has been an effective instrument for getting a large audience to appreciate modern literature, and Tom Wolfe writing that The New Yorker style was one of leisurely meandering understatement, droll when in the humorous mode, tautological and litotical when in the serious mode. The magazine has also published comics journalism, with occasional stories by cartoonists like Marisa Acocella Marchetto, Barry Blitt, and Art Spiegelman, and has launched a crossword puzzle series with a weekday crossword published every Monday, as well as a second, weekend crossword that appears on Fridays.