The Last Martini: A Media Reporter’s Field Notes From the Gilded Age of Magazines

A love letter to a lost time

Even as the publishing world wrestles with the existential threat of AI, this summer has turned back the clock to its halcyon days when magazines minted money and editors held sway as the arbiters of culture.

From Graydon Carter’s delicious memoir on his reign at Spy and Vanity Fair and Michael Grynbaum’s chronicle of Condé Nast’s gilded era to The New York Times check-in with former Vogue publisher Ron Galotti, the real-life inspo for SATC’s Mr. Big—the ‘90s and aughts have been squarely back in the spotlight.

Back then, I was a young(ish) reporter at trade pub Mediaweek hired to cover publishing’s power players. I had left Time magazine, where I was so far down the masthead that managing editor Walter Isaacson couldn’t pick me out of a lineup.

My beat was completely bonkers. So much so, I actually kept a diary and random ephemera to remind myself one day it had all been real. These are my own recollections of a bygone era, snapshots and moments, nothing more. 

Feeling nostalgic, I dusted off my receipts, and I’m rolling them as an article series on LinkedIn, Facebook and on my site starting today.

Special thanks to Lisa Dallos and Tony Case for their friendship and
invaluable advice.

Hope you’ll come along for the ride.

All my best,
Lisa

Part 1: Dover Sole, Sambuca and JFK Jr. for Dessert