Does the magazine contribute to keeping journalism honest?
Yes. I think a magazine like this is important because anybody can be a media critic, but most of that comes from a very partisan, opinionated place. Our magazine has a very clear idea of what quality journalism is and why it’s important in a free society. Is there anything you’d like to see more of in the way of submissions? I’m 41, my co-editor is 56 and we’re white men. If we had a huge budget, we’d make a point of hiring a very diverse staff—by age, race, gender, ethnicity. But without that, we do rely on unsolicited queries to point things out that are blotted out by our blind spots. What are the most important elements you look for in a query? We’re small enough and we pay little enough that we definitely are open to new and young writers. A lot of people who write for us do have a lot of experience. But you must be able to convince me, either in the way you present the idea, or in examples of work that you’ve published somewhere, that you can execute the idea in a professional w
