Graydon Carter's memoir, co-authored with James Fox, delves into the golden years of magazines during the '80s and '90s, a time of financial abundance and cultural influence. Carter reflects on the lavish lifestyles of magazine editors, the immense profits garnered from advertising, and the perks of the industry. However, the memoir serves as a somber reminder of the dwindling power of print media and its transformation through economic challenges, particularly following the Great Recession, illustrating both a personal and industry-wide elegy for a bygone era.
Make no mistake: When the Going Was Good, legendary Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter's memoir about 'the last golden age of magazines,' is an elegy.
Glossy magazines published by the likes of Condé Nast, Time Inc., and Hearst were once flush with cash. The '80s and the '90s were the peak of the industry's abundance.
A page of advertising in Vanity Fair cost upward of $100,000; per Carter, 'We were hugely profitable in those days, and as hard as it is to believe now, it was all worth it.'
Younger people would never understand the expense-account stories of the time, because that all disappeared with the Great Recession.
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