Tina Brown Thinks the Über-Rich Have It Coming

The lavish expense accounts. The power. The shoulder pads! The days of the media elite in New York are long gone, but there is perhaps no sharper observer of politics and culture than one of that period’s most prominent figures: Tina Brown. In the 1980s and ’90s, she was the editor in chief of Vanity Fair, pioneering a now-recognizable mix of gossipy Hollywood pieces, high-society scandal coverage and hard-hitting reporting on Washington and wars around the world. She then went to run The New Yorker and was the first and only woman to hold that job. There she hired several great talents, including David Remnick, who went on to succeed her when she left to start the ill-fated monthly magazine Talk with Harvey Weinstein (a venture that folded after two years).

Brown was able to then transition from the glossies to the less rarefied world of the internet, launching The Daily Beast in 2008. She also wrote books about one of her enduring fascinations, the royal family, and about her time at Vanity Fair. She’s now brought her stinging analysis of politics and culture to Substack, with her deeply enjoyable and dishy newsletter, “Fresh Hell.” (Recent headlines include: “The Inside Story on How King Charles Pulled the Plug on Andrew” and “Why Murdoch Doesn’t Give a Toss About Trump.”)

Brown’s ability to reinvent herself again and again, without losing her sensibility, is something I’ve long admired. And at a time when there is so much change and uncertainty in our media and our politics, I thought it would be grounding, and fun, to sit down with someone who has the long view — and a lot of stories. Brown, now 71, did not disappoint.