“The library was my babysitter,” began Adam Moss OC ’79, editor-in-chief of New York magazine. He was the featured speaker at the Friends of the Library annual dinner on Saturday. The speech, “The Journalism of Ordinary Experience,” discussed the development of literary journalism or, as Moss put it, the journalism of “what is most ordinary.”

Moss found his own piece of “library paradise” in the stacks of magazines at the library, perusing old periodicals from World War II.  He described these publications as “primary source texts of history, …storybooks, stimulants for my imagination.”

Moss’s childhood fascination with magazines morphed into a successful career.  Before becoming editor-in-chief of New York magazine in March 2004, Moss was assistant managing editor for Features at The New York Times and editor of The New York Times Magazine. Moss has also worked for Rolling Stone and Esquire and in 1988 he founded his own short-lived publication, 7 Days.

“[Unlike] heroic journalism, the stuff of Bush and Madonna, ordinary journalism is the journalism about you,” said Moss. “The a-heroic.” 

He described how the work of such legends as Norman Mailer and Truman Capote pioneered this new form of journalism in the 1960s. It flourished, he said, because readers liked seeing their own lives reflected back at them.  Moss discussed his own involvement in the development of literary journalism using slides from various magazines he’s worked at over his career.

When Moss founded 7 Days, this new form of journalism largely influenced its direction. 

“[7 Days] was a hybrid of magazine and newspaper [that discussed] New York politics and culture,” said Moss.  “Its real subject was its audience…a series of blogs in print.”    

During his experience with 7 Days, Moss developed a long-term fascination with what he described as the “narcissistic spirit” of literary journalism, a fascination that bled into his subsequent career.  By the time Moss began working for the Times magazine, it too was experimenting with literary journalism. 

Moss attributed this trend to the more personal nature of magazines as compared to newspapers. 

“Magazines are more intimate than newspapers,” he said.  “[They] try to capture the small life.”

Under Moss, the Times magazine introduced a new column, “The Way We Live Now,” that portrayed the a-heroic events of the quotidian life. 

Now, as editor-in-chief of New York magazine, the original “cradle of literary journalism,” as he described it, Moss has found a venue in which he can fully explore the genre.

“[New York magazine] is dedicated to the full tapestry of the New York experience,” said Moss.  “It is the perfect place to explore the journalism of the small gesture.”

While Moss by no means implied that objective news coverage was losing ground in journalism, he suggested that this new genre might be an answer to the American public’s yearning for genuine and specific journalism.

“The power of the real and the small is asserting itself,” he said

Moss explored the limitations of objective reporting, saying, “Journalism is, by nature, reductive.  We try to flatten away irregularities…and find the trend line.” 

He added, “But [journalists] are also storytellers,” he added.

Moss concluded by returning to the memory of his childhood, spent in dusty magazine stacks at the library.

“I take seriously the cliché that journalism is the first draft of history…an artifact of its moment — top down, bottom up.”