THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

'''The New York Times Magazine''' is a supplement to the Sunday ''The New York Times'' newspaper. Its first issue was published on September 6, 1896, and contained the first photographs ever printed in the newspaper.The New York Times Company. New York Times Timeline 1881-1910. Retrieved on 2007-05-06. The creation of a "serious" Sunday magazine was part of a massive overhaul to the newspaper instigated that year by its new owner, Adolph Ochs, who also banned fiction, comic strips, and gossip columns from the paper and is generally credited with saving ''The New York Times'' from financial ruin."The Kingdom and the Cabbage", ''Time'', 1977-08-15. Retrieved on 2007-05-07. In mid-1897, the magazine published a 16-page spread of photographs documenting Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, a "costly feat" that resulted in a wildly popular issue and helped boost the magazine to success. 5000 Sundays: Letter From the Editor Jack Rosenthal
In its early years, ''The New York Times Magazine'' began a tradition of publishing the writing of well-known contributors, from W. E. B. Du Bois and Albert Einstein to numerous sitting and future U.S. Presidents. Editor Lester Markel, an "intense and autocratic" journalist who oversaw the Sunday ''Times'' from the 1920s through the 1950s, encouraged the idea of the magazine as a forum for ideas. During his tenure, writers like Count Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, Gertrude Stein, and Tennessee Williams contributed pieces to the magazine. When, in 1970, ''The New York Times'' introduced its first Op-Ed page, the magazine shifted away from publishing as many editorial pieces.
In 1979, the magazine began publishing Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Safire's "On Language," a column discussing issues of English grammar, use and etymology. Safire's column steadily gained popularity and by 1990 was generating "more mail than anything else" in the magazine.^[2] 1999 saw the debut of "The Ethicist," an advice column written by humorist Randy Cohen that quickly became a highly contentious part of the magazine."Letter to the Reader" (fee required), ''The New York Times'', 1999-02-21. Retrieved on 2007-05-22.^[3]
Today, ''The New York Times Magazine'' is host to many longer feature articles than are typically included in the newspaper, and continues to attract notable contributors. The magazine is also renowned for its glamorous photography, especially relating to fashion and style. In 2004, ''The New York Times Magazine'' began publishing an entire supplement devoted to style. Titled "T", the supplement is edited by Stefano Tonchi and appears 14 times a year. In Fall 2006, the magazine introduced two other supplements, "PLAY", a sports magazine published every other month, and "KEY", a real estate magazine published twice a year..^[4]

Contents

Puzzles

The Funny Pages

Strips

Sunday Serials

References

Puzzles

Every week, the ''New York Times Magazine'' features a puzzle page that is popular with readers and puzzle fans. Most noteworthy is a lengthy crossword puzzle that puzzle aficionados consider to be much more challenging than the crossword puzzle featured in the Times on the other 6 days of the week. In addition, the Magazine features other types of puzzles on a rotating basis. These latter puzzles include diagramless crossword puzzles and anacrostics. The editor of the Puzzle section is Will Shortz, who is also the host of the on-air puzzle segment that airs each week on ''Weekend Edition Sunday'' on National Public Radio.

The Funny Pages

In the September 18, 2005 issue of ''The New York Times Magazine'', an editors' note announced the addition of ''The Funny Pages,'' a literary section of the magazine intended to "engage our readers in some ways we haven't yet tried--and to acknowledge that it takes many different types of writing to tell the story of our time.""From the Editors; The Funny Pages" (fee required), ''The New York Times'', 2005-09-18. Retrieved on 2007-05-05. ''The Funny Pages'' is made up of three parts: the Strip (a multipart graphic novel that spans weeks), the Sunday Serial (a genre fiction serial novel that also spans weeks), and True-Life Tales (a humorous personal essay, by a different author each week.)
The section has been criticized for being unfunny and excessively highbrow; in a 2006 poll conducted by Gawker.com asking, "Do you now find — or have you ever found — ''The Funny Pages'' funny?", 92% of 1824 voters answered "No."^[5]

Strips

Title	Artist	Start Date	End Date	# of Chapters
''Building Stories''	Chris Ware	September 18, 2005	April 16, 2006	30
''La Maggie La Loca''	Jaime Hernandez	April 23, 2006	September 3, 2006	20
''George Sprott (1894-1975)''	Seth	September 17, 2006	March 25, 2007	25
''Watergate Sue''	Megan Kelso	April 1, 2007		23 (to date)

Sunday Serials

Title	Author	Start Date	End Date	# of Chapters
''Comfort to the Enemy''	Elmore Leonard	September 18, 2005	December 18, 2005	14
''At Risk''	Patricia Cornwell	January 8, 2006	April 16, 2006	15
''Limitations''	Scott Turow	April 23, 2006	August 6, 2006	16
''The Overlook''	Michael Connelly	September 17, 2006	January 21, 2007	16
''Gentlemen of the Road''	Michael Chabon	January 28, 2007	May 6, 2007	15
''Doors Open''	Ian Rankin	May 13, 2007	August 19, 2007	15
''The Dead and the Naked''	Cathleen Schine	September 9, 2007		1 (to date)

Of the serial novels, ''At Risk'', ''Limitations'', and ''The Overlook'' have since been published in book form with added material. ''Gentlemen of the Road'' will follow suit on November 6, 2007.^[6]

References

1. Investors: Circulation Data The New York Times Company
2. "Language Maven Strikes Again", ''Entertainment Weekly'', 1990-08-10. Retrieved on 2007-05-22.
3. Gordon, Doug. "Interview: Randy Cohen, The Ethicist", Gothamist.com, 2004-10-08. Retrieved on 2007-05-22.
4. Media Kit 2007: Magazine Highlights The New York Times Company
5. Is the 'Times Magazine' Funny?
6. 3/13 Del Rey Acquires Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road