The New Islander
The New Islander is an American magazine of literature, politics, cultural commentary, and personal expression, based in New York City and published by New Islander Media Inc. Founded by university students from all over the United States as well as the United Kingdom, the magazine principally targets a sophisticated audience of intellectually diverse "writers, university and prep students, cultural critics, and the world". The magazine is most well-known for seeking out and consequently publishing works of writing that are most personal in nature; intimate experiences, real-life stories, first-hand accounts, moving revelations. Additionally, the magazine welcomes "those who are not afraid to boldly and most personally express the unique events and occurrences, both expected and unexpected, of their lives".
The magazine's current format is not that of a newsmagazine, but that of a new style of literary publication, publishing not just fiction and poetry, but also news-related events, stories, and phenomenon, in addition to pieces of political opinion and cultural commentary, as well as creative non-fiction and investigative journalism works.
History
The New Islander debuted on November 1, 2009, claiming to be the world's first-ever "personal" magazine. It was founded by current Editor in Chief Paul Young , originally as a New York-based literary magazine. Brianne Corcoran, an editor at The Harvard Crimson 1 , was hired as the publication's Managing Editor before the launch.
Run largely by students—and primarily catering to them—Young hoped to create a new type of magazine that would "provide young people, near and far, with a publication that [was] more revealing than it [was] glamorous, more raw than it [was] shapely, and more personal than it [was] commercial."
Since its first days as a public media identity, the magazine has largely catered to, and thus represented students and graduates of universities and colleges within the Ivy League as well as other elite institutions of higher learning. A majority of the works published in the magazine, both by outside contributor and hired staff writer, come from such students. Nonetheless, the magazine has published, at times, satire and commentary criticizing the lifestyle and culture found within such schools.
On November 20, 2009, the magazine published a satire of Harvard and Yale's historic football Game, written by a Yale student who goes by the byline, Wesley Quinn.
Style and Content
The New Islander's website has been praised for being "nostalgic and simple, yet still rich and sophisticated". Content wise, the founding editors push for a conservative publication that is not of new ideas, but of traditional, old ideas that are "turned over and over-turned again". An emphasis on the historical and the past is a common theme that's found throughout the magazine's content, perhaps to challenge the growing trend—relating to the rapid rise in influence and popularity of modern/online multimedia forms, social networking sites, and modern technology in general—currently taking form in the publishing and news industries; since it's launch, the magazine has published stories covering topics ranging from the recent 2010 Haiti earthquake to the past attack on the USS Liberty incident, which occurred in 1967. As exclaimed in an editor's statement, the theme most central to the magazine's mission is its publishing of works that are very personal in context, somewhat offbeat in topic, and considerably raw in nature. The statement reads:
We believe in the power of the personal story, the first-hand account of an experience that's uniquely original to a sole individual. We believe in the power of the young student's voice, the less inhibited and more expressive tendencies of a yet-to-be-fully-explored intellect, a vigorous imagination. We believe in the value of writing, the beauty of quirks, the significance of diversity, and the necessity to grow. We believe that at first glance, such material may be more challenging than it is appealing; challenging to read, digest, make meaning of, and retain - during such an era of unprecedented growth in information-technology and mass-communication, who's to find favor with a periodical that is anything but crammed full of the most breaking, repetitive headlines streaked deliberately with 'appealing' color. No matter, we believe that it is now or never, the moment to provide to America's next generation of movers and shakers, inventors and leaders, content that is actually worth their time. And so we launch The New Islander, America's first-ever young personal magazine, to stand firmly against the unstable winds of the mainstream media, and to offer to those who seek it, a setting of solace chock-full-of personality, tenacity, and what may soon be considered history.
Among some of the magazine's more personal pieces is a young man's recollection of the lessons learned while growing up in a Hispanic immigrant household, a young woman's reflection on an internship experience at the National Immigrant Justice Center, a young man's first-hand account of a Muslim protest in the streets of Paris, and an intoxicated student's unstable stream of consciousness.
In terms of reporting, the magazine primarily covers stories that have been overlooked or under-covered by mainstream news outlets such as The New York Times. In addition, the magazine tends to be critical of newer forms of technology that concern multimedia forms and the World Wide Web such as Twitter and mobile phones.
The magazine has, at times, been considered a younger alternative to The New Yorker 2, though the founding editors have been known to poke fun at The New Yorker's "fastidious" nature, saying:
We will strive to promote the telling and most personal expression of any willing young individual, so in a way as to harmoniously reveal the actualities of the individuals comprising this generation - and therefore stray from welcoming the gilded qualities so reminiscent of those "writers" desperately seeking to make way into that fastidious 'opposite-of-old' Yorker.
Northeastern culture, particularly the lifestyle of those residing throughout the New England states, is an additional prominent theme that can be found both visually and contextually in the magazine.
Staff
The magazine boasts a diverse staff body comprised of student editors from several leading university institutions in the United States. Eleni Marmarelis, currently a student at Dartmouth College, serves as the Editor at Large, while Alexander Park, a graduate of Phillips Academy who currently attends Columbia University, serves as Senior Editor. In addition to the editorial board, The New Islander has a hired team of staff writers representing such universities as Yale, Harvard, Princeton University, UPenn, Oxford University, and Wellesley College. Much of the content that's published by The New Islander, however, comes from outside contributors who submit original, unsolicited works of writing, which are then scanned, vetted, and edited by the editors.
Audience
According to the The New Islander's publishing company3, the magazine (online) reaches students from more than 100 universities and colleges throughout the United States and United Kingdom. 85% of online visitors are ages 18–28, while some of the most heavily represented university institutions include Harvard, Dartmouth College, Oxford University, Amherst College, Columbia University, New York University, Cambridge University, University of Southern California, Northwestern University, Stanford University, and the University College London, to name a few. Additionally, several weeks after launching online, The New Islander chose to cross-link with Harvard-started online magazine, Her Campus 4, so as to share online readers.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Since its launch, the magazine has been known to dedicate articles to the late William F. Buckley, Jr., a figure who the editors decided to dedicate the magazine to. In the magazine's opening political mission statement, two of the magazine's founding editors, Paul Young and Brianne Corcoran, hinted at the publication's respect for—and allegiance to -- William F. Buckley, Jr. as well as his conservative political ideology.
They wrote: