WE'RE TALKING ABOUT BYLINES
Introducing our new newsletter concept.....
Hello! And welcome back to our newsletter. It’s always a pleasure to have you here, but today—and going forward—we’re enlisting ourselves on Substack as byline gossip columnists.
At any given moment, we (the Byline team and those in our orbit) are firing off messages about what’s happening in the world of, well, bylines. Who’s writing what, what essay is actually worth reading, what authors wrote books that are changing our lives, which magazines are breaking the mold, and which are, erm, not. Our group texts and DMs offer a constant feed of byline updates. This spawned an idea: maybe there’s a need for just byline news. Perhaps our variations of breaking news and gossip, our thoughts and observations on the space, are important enough to be shared with our dear readers.
So welcome. Here you will find a weekly dispatch about everything you need to know in the world of bylines as it relates to media, magazines, literature, and the arts. News we find noteworthy, delicious, disappointing—at the very least, worth talking about. Just one question: what should we call it? Leave your suggestions and if we pick yours, you’ll receive: bragging rights forever, comped Byline subscription for life, and a hat. Or two.
The below information is aggregated from our group texts, research, scrolls, DMs, and IRL gossip. We hope you enjoy it. Let us know what you think.
- The Byline Team
Antoni is joining the Breaking & Entering team. Antoni, a former Queer Eye stylist and current purported CPG fan, will be joining the show regularly to talk celebrity brand partnerships.
Jack Westerkamp, co-founder of B&E gave us the scoop (our first one!) on the new relationship: “When we first interviewed Antoni for our live show in Cannes, it was immediately clear that he was actually willing to speak candidly on his experiences with brands and what he’s learned. For our audience of marketers, it feels like an amazing opportunity to deliver valuable content that helps them understand how to best engage with celebrity talent through the perspective of Antoni, who has had a ton of success in his brand partnerships.”French magazine Combo released its 4th issue, theme: Voices of the Rising Dawn. They’ve only released 4 issues in 5 years. It’s a collectible magazine, about 1.5 inches thick, and every page is a work of art. There are collages, hand-drawn horoscopes, paintings, and not a single visible ad. It’s a dissertation on magazine utopia. The CD/EIC is French model and writer Louise Follain, but this publication is clearly a group project between many creative friends
Alastair McKimm, the former fashion director and Global EIC of i-D, is launching his own magazine called prototype_. McKimm is known for his clean covers, his creative work with Marc Jacobs, and his relationships with industry icons. In a quote earlier this year, he shared, “I’m thrilled to be joining Visual Talent Group, not only to launch Prototype_ and VTG Studios, but to build on 20-plus years of the group’s publishing success. Having the opportunity to start a magazine and a creative studio is a career-long dream of mine, and I’m truly grateful to Peter Jones and the team for this incredible opportunity.”
The New York Times’ Jessica Grose offered her opinion on the Caroline Calloway Byline essay taking over your feeds. “If you read between the lines, Calloway has done a service: She paints a picture of her battle against a sick culture and, in a roundabout way, lets us know that Ozempic really isn’t helping her win.” Another win for nuance.
The Cut’s infamous anonymous column, Sex Diaries by Alyssa Shelasky, has been turned into a book—Sex Diaries: Real-Life Stories of Non-monogamy and Polyamory, featuring an intro by Ester Perel. Out now via Penguin Random House.
Jia Tolentino’s plastic surgery essay has been getting a lot of backlash on “Twitter.”
To be honest, upon reading the headline, it seemed like The New Yorker was republishing her 2019 essay on the same topic. People seem to be pissed because this is more of the same, because of her purported complicity, because of her lack of ability—or willingness—to deliver a tidy solution to the problem she’s illustrated. But this latest essay, while surely a companion piece to the original Instagram Face essay, is an expansion of how Instagram Face has devolved. Is she supposed to have the answers? She’s offering you the complexities of her own experience. Take it or leave it. She’ll always be our queen of a thoroughly researched personal essay.
Fashion superstar Brandon Tan is back at GQ as the Global Fashion Director, following two years as the Fashion Director of Willa Bennett’s Cosmopolitan and Seventeen.
Speaking of GQ… There’s plenty to elaborate on in regards to the ways that internet speak is diluting the ways we utilize language. But reading the term “wholesomemaxxing” published sincerely in Gentleman’s Quarterly felt like falling down a chasm into the fiery pits of hell…No shade to the writer personally. But you’re one of the first people in the world to hear this song, on this album…there hasssssss to be a better way to describe how it made you feel. Please, dear readers, dear writers, put down those phones and pick up a thesaurus, a dictionary, a piece of physical media published at any point in human history. Be descriptive, specific. Give us feeling, dazzle us, wow us. Take the time to say something important and new. And make sure its suffix isn’t a faux linguistic trend. Hold yourself to editorial excellence! Spare the world from sentences like “‘Magic Metal Montana’ had me wholesomemaxxing throughout the whole thing.” MAKE WHAT YOU SAY MEANINGFUL!
Substack is growing, writers are launching their careers as freelancers with a Substack, and contributing/reading there is fun. But just one question, if I may: why is there not a function that allows you to read the most-engaged essays of the week? Substack (hey!!) if you’re listening, please let us filter through the slop and see the best writing your users have to offer.
One of the Substack writers we’d like to recommend for the week: Former Calvin Klein designer Barbara Devries is publishing the diary entries she wrote in the 1990s recording her days at the fashion house. It’s delicious.
Marie Claire Australia has found themselves ensnared in a bit of an AI scandal. The piece, which seemed to be about The Odyssey press tour, was (mostly) written by Caitlin Napier (who appears to have erased most of her existence from the internet). In the hastily deleted article, ChatGPT writes, “This version feels a little tighter and more magazine-style, and ‘embracing his villain era’ lands more naturally than ‘stepping into his villainous arc.’” Here we go again with the TikTok speak…It’s unclear what’s more upsetting: the flagrant use of AI here or the fact that anyone was considering running “in his villain era” in a piece about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. A feat of creativity. An ancient Homeric epic. And you’re going to use “in his villain era????” We used to be honorable…
Alix Earle serves ketchup and mustard realness on the cover of Time for their 100 most influential online creators issue, wearing fan favorite Emily Dawn Long and shot by legend David Brandon Geeting! We love to see it!
Maya Jama on the cover of the latest Office Magazine… not sure who Maya Jama* is, but it feels safe to assume anyone who is conventionally attractive with 1-3 million followers is a result of Love Island and/or other reality TV endeavors. We can thank the Bravo-fication of the Attractive Regular for the flurry of meaningless covers…Sorry!
*Upon further research, our assumptions were correct.
Speaking of confusing covers… Men’s Health did Diplo absolutely dirty with their latest feature. Of course, we understand that times are tough in publishing (as an indie publication, we understand that QUITE well), but how this was approved by any number of people on the creative team is…insane.
Not new, but if you haven’t already read it, half of our team is devouring the My Brilliant Friend series by Elena Ferrante as a key summer read.
Let’s end on a positive note: Rumor has it the MTA may have something fun and literary in store as part of their Vacant Unit Activation Program. MTA + the literary world = match made in heaven, obviously. Stay tuned and stand clear of the closing doors.
Thanks for reading our new byline news/gossip/observation column. If you have corrections, comments, or tips, please send them to hi@bylinebyline.com.
Subscribe to Byline to support the future of independent and print media here.
I propose “Line Byline” (or “Line by Line”?) for this endeavor
This is actually really cool and makes the brain of a girl who wants to know anything about everything very happy