Gerald Marzorati's Departure: Reading Between the Lines
Last month, Gerald Marzorati stepped down as editor of the New York Times Magazine after seven years. Today, John Koblin dissects the reasons for Marzorati's somewhat abrupt departure. There seems to be something...between the lines, here.
Koblin's piece in the NYO today essentially says that (notwithstanding Marzorati's assertion that his departure was friendly, and it was just time for him to do something new) the reasons for the end of Marzorati's reign were twofold: one, he was a "hands-off" manager whose staff perceived him as being "less engaged and less ambitious" over the past couple of years; and two, staffers were upset that Marzorati named former Us editor Megan Liberman as his deputy editor. Several anonymously complained to Koblin about her "abrasive" personality. Nevertheless, she and Marzorati were...very close:
In 2007, Mr. Marzorati named her the Web editor, and by 2008, she became (along with Alex Star) his deputy. She also became an extremely close confidante. The two of them were often seen together, and she was a very close ally, staffers said.
The magazine's top editor and his deputy editor were often seen together. Hm. It's almost as if there were some unspoken insinuation lurking just below the surface of this otherwise unremarkable fact.
