Off the Cuff

From Portfolio magazine: “Philadelphia magazine pioneered a mix of long-form investigative work with short service pieces even before Clay Felker took a similar approach at New York. Is this formula still relevant for magazines?”

Larry Platt, in response: “Yes. Our magazines are field guides to their regions. That includes “Best Of” lists, which were invented by Boston magazine in 1974. Service packages go to the heart of readers’ lifestyles interests. We couple that with long-form narrative—each issue I run 5,000 to 7,000 word pieces about things people really care about in Philadelphia. Every town in America not named New York and L.A. is run by about 250 people. The idea is to find those 250 and write about them. Felker used to say, “They’ll buy you for the service, but love you for the narrative.” That’s what we want to do. I think of our magazines as throwing a cocktail party in print—we want people to feel like they can’t afford to miss it.”

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Although I plan on high-tailing it out of Philadelphia post-graduation, I will most likely still be reading Philly Mag five years out. If It’s not clear in the Portfolio article (in entirety here), the editors truly love what they do and consistently put out a quality magazine.

I was lucky enough to be an intern when the WHYY scheme mentioned in the article was still in its infancy. During one issue review, Platt, almost thinking aloud, mentioned the idea of a probing open letter to Bill Marrazzo (the very generously compensated WHYY station CEO) and the editors just lit up at the idea. Quality journalism paired with a call to action? Brilliant.