Who

The co-founder of Spy, former editor-in-chief of New York, and two-time novelist, Andersen has been at (or near) the center of the media universe for more than two decades.

Backstory

An Omaha native, Andersen arrived in New York in 1976 and spent a day working as a copyboy at the Daily News before moving to NBC where he wrote copy for Today's Gene Shalit. He soon decamped for Time and spent eight years as the magazine's architecture and design critic, leaving in 1986 to team up with pal Graydon Carter to launch Spy, the widely imitated satire mag that savaged the rich and powerful. Andersen was left holding the bag in 1991 when Carter suddenly jumped ship for the New York Observer. He quickly negotiated his own departure, too, and returned to Time for a spell before being named editor-in-chief of New York in 1994. His tenure at New York, however, lasted just two years: In August of 1996, he was fired, either because circulation was flat (the story according to New York's then-parent company, K-III) or because, as Andersen claims, he infuriated K-III's principal owner, Henry Kravis, by publishing an exposé that featured Kravis's pals, Steven Rattner and Felix Rohatyn. Andersen headed off to The New Yorker where he served as a staff writer and columnist. He then embarked on what would become his biggest career failure, Inside.com, an ill-timed media play that flamed out spectacularly when the dot-com bubble burst. Since then, he's published two novels, hosted a radio show Studio 360 on WNYC, penned a column for New York, and written several screenplays.

Of note

Anderson returned to New York in 2005 and continues to pen a bi-weekly column called "The Imperial City." He also continues to host a radio show, Studio 360, on WNYC. In March 2007, he published his second novel, Heyday. (His first was the widely-acclaimed Turn of the Century.) Thanks to the efforts of William Morris's Suzanne Gluck, he's since landed a two-book deal with Random House and signed on at the company as an editor-at-large, with a brief to seek out interesting projects. Those aren't the only projects keeping him busy, though. Andersen has tried his hand at writing for TV and penned an off-Broadway theatrical revue. He was also involved in launching Very Short List, an e-newsletter controlled by Barry Diller's IAC and overseen by Michael Jackson.

Board game

Andersen is on the board of trustees of Pratt. He's also a trustee of Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, along with Beth Comstock, Reed Krakoff, and Richard Meier, among others.

Personal

Andersen is married to Anne Kreamer, a fellow Harvard grad who worked at Spy. A former Nickelodeon exec and columnist for Martha Stewart Living, Kreamer's first book, Going Gray, was published in late 2007. (She also writes a health-related blog for Yahoo! by the same name, where she's written about her experience with Botox and her struggle to quit drinking and smoking, among other things.) Andersen and Kreamer have two daughters, Lucy and Kate. They've lived in the same four-story Carroll Gardens townhouse since 1989, and spend weekends on an 18-acre farm in Dutchess County where they raise sheep.

For the record

It's "Andersen," not "Anderson." Seth Mnookin once found that the Times had misspelled his name on at least eight occasions over the past few years.