CURRENTS
Kuttner's Turbulence
With Republicans in the driver's seat in Washington, now would seem the optimum moment for a liberal political magazine like The American Prospect to ascend and make its voice heard.
Yet as of February 2003, the Prospect's voice will be heard half as often. The magazine is moving from a biweekly schedule to monthly, with a focus on timely Web content. And the Prospect is at a funding crossroads; in July, it received its last scheduled grant from the Florence and John Schumann Foundation, its largest benefactor since the magazine's founding in 1990. Between 1999 and 2002, Schumann gave the Prospect $8.5 million to increase circulation and overall influence, and to help the magazine become a biweekly. Robert Kuttner, a founder and co-editor of the Prospect, says that the biweekly schedule was not sustainable "unless the Schumann Foundation was prepared to go on writing large checks forever."
Schumann trustees say they are satisfied with their investment in the magazine. "Frequency wasn't our goal," says Michael Johnston, a Schumann trustee and Prospect board member. "Creating a presence for a liberal publication was our goal." With circulation projected to be 52,000 by February 2003 — up from 26,000 in February 2001 — both Kuttner and Johnston say their goal has been realized.
But shifts at the Prospect have not been limited to the business plan. Compare the December 2001 masthead to the one in December 2002. Five of the top eight editors are gone. Three different names appeared in the executive editor's slot in that period.
Kuttner attributes the turnover to a shift of editorial offices from Boston to Washington, D.C., over the last few years — a move upon which the Schumann funding was contingent. But several former staffers see additional reasons. The pattern, they contend, predates the Boston-to-D.C. move. "People leave for the same reasons," says one former editor. "Management chaos, being afraid your boss is going to track you down and yell at you, and having to write the same old same old." Robert Dreyfuss, a senior correspondent, says the magazine must get "angrier, more confrontational, feistier, more willing to offend people at every point along the political spectrum . . . more journalistic . . . more investigative." All eyes are on Benjamin Taylor — a former reporter, executive editor, and finally publisher at The Boston Globe — who joined the Prospect as executive editor in November. His comment: "Sounds daunting, doesn't it?"
Enjoy this piece? Consider a CJR trial subscription.
