George (magazine)
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George was a glossy politics-as-lifestyle monthly magazine founded by John F. Kennedy, Jr. and publisher Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in New York City in 1995. Its tagline was "Not Just Politics as Usual."
The debut issue featured a photograph of Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington.
When it first appeared, George attracted great interest, and soon became the largest circulating political magazine in the nation (only for a few years), partly due to the celebrity status of Kennedy, but it soon began losing money. Kennedy later complained that the magazine was not taken seriously in the publishing world.
After Kennedy's untimely death in a plane crash in 1999, Frank Lalli become editor-in-chief. In 2001, George was terminated by Hachette Filipacchi due to disappointing advertising revenues.
Critics called George "the political magazine for people who don't understand politics", assailing it for "stripping any and all discussion of political issues from its coverage of politics". In a feature in its final issue, Spy magazine asserted that the magazine's premise was flawed; there was no real convergence of politics and celebrity lifestyles.
Notable staff and contributing writers
- Richard Blow, editor
- Alfonse D'Amato
- Tom Dunkel
- Karen Feld
- Stephen Glass
- Michael Gross
- John F. Kennedy, Jr., publisher
- Norman Mailer
- Jim Morrison
- Krista Reese
- Inigo Thomas, editor
- W. Thomas Smith, Jr.
- Naomi Wolf