Henry Luce’s baby (Time Inc.) now belongs to Steve Case’s baby. Time is not exactly the same company the creator of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated bequeathed to his heirs. But until this moment, I don’t think I appreciated how far it had fallen from relevance.
Time Inc’s journalism is now something AOL can give away to sell subscriptions — the journalistic equivalent of all those CD’s you get in the mail.
If this is such a hot deal, why hasn’t Conde Nast, Hearst, or Primedia jumped at it?
I mentioned Henry Luce earlier mainly so I could relate this anecdote:
Dorothy Parker and Clare Booth Luce — arguably two of America’s great twentieth century literary women — come to a door at the same time. Luce steps aside, saying, “Age before beauty”. Dorothy Parker walks through the door, saying, “…and pearls before swine.”