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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Esquire Magazine Becoming Obsolete

Mark Feeney The Boston Globe

Right now there may be no clearer reminder of the truth that journalism is a business, not a calling, than Esquire. It bears one of the more glittering histories among U.S. magazines Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Tom Wolfe, etc. and, nowadays, one of the shakier balance sheets. A paucity of ads has so shrunken the editorial hole that columnists’ contracts for 1998 specify eight columns a year rather than 12.

David Granger, who took over the magazine last spring, came from GQ, which has thoroughly cleaned Esquire’s clock over the past decade. Other than an October cover story that flirted with outing a well-known film actor with a leaden coyness that had to be read to be disbelieved, Granger’s regime has done little to distinguish itself.

The January issue epitomizes Esquire’s plight. On the cover are the annual Dubious Achievements Awards, an Esquire mainstay for 36 years. The awards being a mainstay for that long is precisely the problem: What seemed well nigh revolutionary c. 1961 - so refreshingly irreverent was the concept, so uniquely sassy the execution - has become utterly passe. The Dubious Achievement Awards have had the rather dubious distinction, from Esquire’s point of view, of becoming an industry commonplace. The jeers-and-sneers year-ender is as much a standby as “The Year in Pictures.” Even TV Guide is doing it.

Meanwhile, on the cyber front, Wired (January) celebrates its fifth anniversary. The magazine’s look just keeps getting bolder and better. It really does manage to provide a visual equivalent for innovation and excitement. The magazine’s content, however, just keeps getting gassier and more self-regarding.