The New Journalism, 1960–80

The stylistic shift that is associated with the New Journalism was made plausible by a variety of material, organizational, professional, and cultural changes that occurred after World War II. The turn to a new journalism was encouraged by changes in the magazine marketplace and the wider media system, the expansion of an educated readership, the creation of a paperback book market, the interpretive failures of traditional reporting, an identity crisis in the news profession, status conflicts among New York City writers, and the public’s interest in nonfiction narratives about contemporary social change. Editors played a crucial role: Harold Hayes at Esquire , Clay Felker at New York, and Willie Morris at Harper’s solicited, shaped, and publicized the new styles of reporting. They served as mediators—interpreting the changing interests of readers, using the new forms of reporting to reposition their publications, persuading advertisers to support work that was sometimes controversial, soliciting writers based on approach and voice, and matching writers with assignments in novel ways. Book editors helped aspiring writers build marketable reputations, and publishers provided writers with book advances that helped support their immersion reporting.