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The New Yorker has long been known and loved for its vibrant covers filled with illustrations. But as demand for print journalism has waned, instead favoring digital media, the publication’s visual tradition has entered a new era.
Coinciding with the release of the new Netflix documentary The New Yorker at 100, the magazine’s editor-in-chief David Remnick spoke with PEOPLE about how the publication maintains some of its traditions as media consumption patterns evolve. The New Yorker, the lauded magazine known for its witty comics, rigorous reporting and pensive pieces from celebrated writers, marked its centenary earlier this year in February.
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Remnick tells PEOPLE that The New Yorker covers mean something different as mass publication shifts to a digital space. The cover illustration is meant to capture a specific moment, he says — something social media posts can also do, and faster.
“I think the challenge is that we’re inundated with images every day. We’re all consuming the millions of photographs we take on our phones,” Remnick says. “And yet, you still see covers having resonance online,”
The New Yorker at 100, directed by Marshall Curry and with Judd Apatow as an executive producer, takes a close look at the publication’s history of innovative covers. Unlike most other magazines, The New Yorker has only ever run illustrated covers, all of which determine the “personality of the issue,” art editor Françoise Mouly says in the documentary.
“It’s not something that you can just slap on at the last minute,” Mouly explains. “A cover needs to speak to the moment but also be a timeless piece of art that should be able to be framed and put on a wall.”
This has been a guiding ethic over the last century. The publication’s covers have captured history and the public mood that defines it — like the famous September 2001 issue’s cover, which simply featured the black outline of the Twin Towers against a dark sky.
The November 2024 cover was decided on election night based on the winner, according to the documentary. That month’s cover featured the silhouette of Donald Trump, looming across much of the publication’s title — “an incredibly cheerful sketch,” Remnick jokes in the documentary. An alternative cover, also meant for a Trump win, was an illustration of an orange prescription bottle that read “take one tablet by mouth once a day for four years.”
What also never made it to newsstands was the cover illustration of Kamala Harris, whose blue suit was etched with the faces of Black trailblazers that came before her, like Barack Obama and Fredrick Douglass.
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It’s a lot of work put into an image that still must compete with other media online, Remnick admits. But to him and The New Yorker staff, it remains a worthwhile pursuit.
“To come up with an image that encapsulates a moment, or even a sense of beauty about it, this wonderful city that we live in, or make a political piece of commentary in just one image — it has only gotten harder to break through,” Remnick tells PEOPLE. “But when you do it, it does something wonderful.”
The New Yorker at 100 is now available to stream on Netflix.
