By Robert MacMillan
Dispatches, which debuts on Monday, is taking a contrarian
stance at a time when most news outlets are trying to stem the
losses they're incurring in printed media by following readers
and advertisers to the Internet.
The magazine, edited by journalist and author Mort
Rosenblum and photographer Gary Knight, is a quarterly
compilation of analyses of world events, with each issue
grouped around a theme and featuring the work of well known
journalists and authors.
While newspapers and news magazines have been adopting
ever-faster schedules to keep up with the 24-hour news cycle
prompted by the always-on nature of the Internet, Dispatches is
slowing down the breathless delivery of "what" and downplaying
instant analysis.
"Rather than compete with existing newspeople, we just
thought we would go deeper and, when possible, closer, and deal
with not so much the what and who, but the why and what can be
done," said Rosenblum, a globetrotting former correspondent for
the Associated Press and author of the book "Escaping Plato's
Cave: How America's Blindness to the Rest of the World
Threatens Our Survival."
Rosenblum's website (http://www.mortrosenblum.net) says
cutbacks and deterioration in U.S. journalism brought on by ad
sales declines and shareholder demands for constant profit
leave readers without sources of analysis in times that are
more dangerous and uncertain than ever.
The first issue of Dispatches includes essays on the theme
"In America." One essay is a trip through New Orleans and other
cities by journalist Muzamil Jaleel called "A Kashmiri in
America: The Lucky Shade of Brown." It also features an essay
by John Kifner of The New York Times that asserts that
Americans ignore history at their peril.
Travel writer Paul Theroux and journalist Samantha Power
also contribute to the first issue.
While the magazine features a website
(http://www.rethink-dispatches), it will not be the heart
of the matter, Rosenblum said in an interview last week.
"We're somewhere between Google and Gutenberg," he said.
"We really believe there's a place for the printed word."
The press release announcing Dispatches's debut takes an
even harder line, saying the magazine "is meant for those who
savor the printed word and the timeless photo, from
foreign-affairs specialists to students who want more than
fleeting images on a computer screen."
Dispatches was funded by Simba Gill, former chief executive
of biotechnology firm Maxygen. Rosenblum declined to say how
much was contributed by Gill, who joined TPG Ventures, part of
private equity firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG.UL), in 2006.
The magazine may prove a tough sell for the wide market.
The first issue costs $15, much more than many magazines with
news analyses like Harper's and The New Yorker.
It also is unclear whether U.S. readers want to read
sometimes unflattering portraits written by modern-day Alexis
de Tocquevilles and presided over by Rosenblum, an editor who
lives on a boat on the Seine River in France and an olive farm
in Draguignan, near Nice.
"We're not really out there to build up subscription
numbers," Rosenblum said. "If we sell a lot of magazines, we'll
be really happy, but our goal here is to reflect this reality
as we see it."
(Editing by John Wallace)
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