An Urban Magazine Jumps Back Onto the Radar

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

There’s a blip on the early warning system of publishing: Radar Magazine is back, infused with cash from the owner of the New York Daily News, Mortimer Zuckerman, and a Wall Street financier, Jeffery Epstein.


The funding comes after more than a year of searching for a backer. In May, false rumors swarmed on the Internet that a French patron was prepared to prop up the magazine financially. But this time the news is official, and Radar’s editor-in-chief, Maer Roshan, has been given a small equity stake.


“The spirit will be here – honest and irreverent and kind of fun and smart – the kind of magazine we all wanted to work at,” Mr. Roshan said.


The magazine floated two trial-balloon issues in the spring and early summer of 2003, though the second was never distributed. Then Mr. Roshan, once the editorial director at Talk Magazine, went on the hunt for investors.


“Really without his kind of almost disturbing dedication to the project, this definitely would not have happened,” said a Radar senior editor, Christ Tennant, of Mr. Roshan. “The balloon floated for a little longer than we would have liked, but based on the financial environment at the time, kind of to be expected.”


Radar will target urban, young adults, between the ages of 25 and 39 – a coveted demographic among advertisers. According to Mr. Roshan, 55 companies advertised in the first two issues of the magazine.


A Web site featuring daily content updates will accompany the print edition of the magazine. The tone may echo that of a blog, but Radar’s editors emphasize that their site will include


original content, rather than simply round up other people’s news. It will be run by a former Gawker media freelancer, Remy Stern. At the moment, www.radarmagazine.com has an introductory graphic and a link to the press release.


“The site’s gonna have the same approach and tone that the magazine has, in terms of design,” Mr. Stern said.


The site is another way to connect with young readers.


“The generation below Vanity Fair readers hasn’t yet got a magazine for themselves,” said Mr. Roshan’s former boss at Talk, Tina Brown. “There’s a real need to cultivate new voices.”


Though Mr. Zuckerman could not be reached for comment, the acquisition of Radar may represent an attempt to make up for his failed bid to purchase New York magazine last year. But Radar’s new publisher, Linda Sepp, disagreed.


“This is a national play, not a New York City play,” she told the New York Sun. “The editorial missions of New York and Radar are very different.”


Ms. Sepp will lead a staff that will look very similar to the team that brought out the test issues. She has been in magazines for years, having worked with Mr. Zuckerman on Fast Company in 1995. Elinor Carmody, the launch publisher of George, will be the senior vice president in charge of marketing.


“We’ve assembled a mini-dream team. We’re not going to have quite as many people, but we’re they’ll be really experienced,” Ms. Sepp said.


The first issue is slated for April, and the Web site will launch “significantly in advance” of that, Mr. Stern said.


Everyone interviewed by the New York Sun for this story communicated the same sentiment as Mr. Roshan: “We’re ready to work.”


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