Kurt Andersen Envisions the Future of Publishing

IWM: What should magazines do to recover?

Andersen: Behave more like Martha Stewart Living and Maxim, I guess -- take chances and put passionate, damn-the-torpedoes visionary geniuses in charge who are obsessed with giving readers what they want.

Ah, yes, the visionary genius that can save print publishing: lifestyle porn and softcore porn. Never would have guessed.

Later in the interview, when asked whether "content is still king," the Kurtster ventures "maybe a better analogy is: content is the pope, and the pipes are king." We would suggest that content is actually the Orthodox Primate, AOL Time Warner is the Holy Roman Emperor, and Matt Haughey is the Dalai Lama.