National Journal magazine has a storied history, and if you live and breathe policy and politics, then you know why. Scrupulously nonpartisan, intellectually honest, genuinely serious about government and about ideas, National Journal has always been a publication that everyone in D.C. could trust.
Those are the essential values that we wanted to take forward into the new National Journal. But we also knew that a lot about the magazine had to change. So many of the things that National Journal's print magazine was long known for are now being done on our highly successful website — in greater volume and with greater speed than the magazine ever could have managed.
Yet we didn't, and don't, think the Internet has made print obsolete. It has simply challenged magazine editors to ask themselves: What is print still for?
(Harry Campbell)We've come up with a few answers to that question. A print magazine, we believe, is for narrative writing that is beautifully crafted and deeply reported. It's for journalism that takes big ideas seriously. It's for long pieces that feel short because they're truly fun to read. It's for telling stories that are complicated and nuanced — as almost all stories worth knowing are. It's for describing the characters, famous or unknown, who shape American democracy — and for understanding their agendas, their motivations, their flaws, their strengths. It's for publishing established, brilliant writers, and also for discovering the next generation of storytelling stars.
Finally, we believe that essential to the experience of reading a great print magazine is a beautiful design — elegant fonts, striking illustrations, excellent photography. Joseph Heroun brilliantly reconceived the magazine's overall look and created the stunning designs that fill the pages of our first issue. At the same time, we also wanted to reimagine how we present our magazine pieces online. Jenny Mazer did a fantastic job of devising an eye-catching new digital format for these pieces.
There are plenty of magazines that use the approach to journalism we are now emphasizing — that focus on long-form writing and great storytelling and outstanding art. But there are no magazines that use this approach to relentlessly focus on the world of policy and politics — and that are broadly trusted across the political spectrum. That is the kind of publication we aim to produce.
To produce a terrific magazine 32 times a year will be no easy task, but we are lucky to have some of the best magazine minds in the business steering the ship — especially our deputy editor, Andie Coller, and our managing editor, Amanda Cormier. All of us are looking forward to creating the new National Journal week after week for our members and subscribers. The magazine we are building is one that we think Washington needs. More than anything, we hope it's a magazine you enjoy.
Richard Just is the editor of National Journal magazine. He was formerly the editor of The New Republic, which he led to a National Magazine Award nomination for general excellence in the thought-leader magazine category in 2012"”TNR's first nomination for general excellence in 20 years. He subsequently worked at Newsweek, where he served as Washington editor and then editor of the magazine. His work has also appeared in The Washington Post, Slate, The Washington Monthly, and The American Prospect. He graduated in 2001 from Princeton University.