Who

Remnick is editor-in-chief of The New Yorker and a demigod to both aspiring freelancers and denizens of liberal enclaves all over America.

Backstory

The son of a dentist and art teacher, Remnick grew up in Hillsdale, NJ and attended Princeton, where he founded one of the on-campus publications, the Nassau Weekly. His first job out of college was as a staff reporter at the Washington Post; he spent a decade at the paper, including four years as Moscow correspondent, an experience that inspired his first book, 1993's Lenin's Tomb. He decamped to The New Yorker as a staff writer in 1992, shortly after Tina Brown took over as editor-in-chief. When Brown left in 1998 to launch the ill-fated magazine Talk, Remnick was offered the top job, despite the fact he'd spent his career as a writer and had relatively little experience as an editor. (Rumor has it he was Si Newhouse's second choice: the Condé Nast chief first approached Michael Kinsley but was insulted when Kinsley didn't accept the job fast enough.) Remnick has been at the helm of The New Yorker ever since, upholding its esteemed reputation and its unique, highbrow take on news and culture. One of the most influential editors at Condé Nast, he reports directly to Newhouse, an arrangement shared only by other powerhouse editors like Anna Wintour and Graydon Carter.

Of note

Tina Brown's reign at The New Yorker in the '90s has been the source of much debate since her departure: Some have credited her with infusing more energy into the staid title and adding a dose of much needed glam; others have argued that she diverted The New Yorker away from its literary roots. Remnick was supposed to be an antidote of sorts, a proper journalist and an intellectual, someone who could bring back a bit of gravitas. Yet the magazine hasn't changed all that much since his arrival a decade ago. Many of the writers whom Brown brought on board (Malcolm Gladwell, Philip Gourevitch, Jeffrey Toobin, Ken Auletta, Adam Gopnik) are still there, including Remnick himself. And the formula is little changed: Articles run ridiculously long (more than 10,000 words at times), writers are permitted to take up to six months to finish a piece, and you'll still find the kind of content—cartoons, illustrations, poetry—that most publications abandoned decades ago.

Perhaps the only major change is that, following nearly a decade and a half of losses, The New Yorker now ekes out a profit. (Of course, this has less to do with Remnick and more to do with the publishing team, especially David Carey, The New Yorker's former publisher who runs Conde Nast's business media division.) For his part, Remnick continues to oversee the editorial as well as contribute the occasional piece: He typically writes two long features every year as well as the odd book review, often focusing on Russia and Israel (where his sister-in-law lives). He also wrote The New Yorker's endorsement of John Kerry in 2004, the first time the magazine publicly supported a candidate for president.

In print

Remnick won a Pulitzer for his first book, Lenin's Tomb. In 1997, he published another book on the subject of Russia, Resurrection. He also authored a book about the life of Mohammed Ali, King of the World, which was published in 1998.

Personal

Remnick is married to former New York Times reporter Esther Fein. They have three kids, a daughter and two sons, and live in a pre-war duplex on West 86th Street. As it does for all its top editors, Condé Nast helped finance the purchase.