E book excerpt: “When the Going Was Good” by Graydon Carter

We might obtain an affiliate fee from something you purchase from this text.

In his new memoir, “When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures Through the Final Golden Age of Magazines” (to be revealed Tuesday by Penguin Press), former Vainness Truthful editor Graydon Carter recounts the glory days of journal publishing, and of his stewardship of the trend-setting title for two-and-a-half a long time.

Among the many colourful highlights Carter writes about from his profession on the venerable Condé Nast property is the subterfuge required to guard Vainness Truthful’s 2015 scoop of Caitlyn Jenner’s transition.

Learn an excerpt beneath, and do not miss Jane Pauley’s interview with Graydon Carter on “CBS Sunday Morning” March 23!

“When the Going Was Good” by Graydon Carter

Desire to pay attention? Audible has a 30-day free trial out there proper now.

We have been all the time looking out for covers that will fly off the newsstands and, in years to come back, go viral on the web. Generally the hunt took us down surprising byways. If the unmasking of Deep Throat was the most important journalistic scoop of my time at Vainness Truthful, the most important scoop with regard to the general tradition was our cowl unique about Caitlyn Jenner. I remembered Jenner as an Olympic decathlete who as Bruce Jenner had appeared on Wheaties containers—as soon as among the many highest accolades an athlete may aspire to.  Jenner was tall and nonetheless handsome—later, with a little bit of assist from colorists and surgeons. There had been a minor and desultory movie profession early on, and by the point of transition, Jenner was a stepfather getting ordered about by sundry Kardashians on their actuality tv present. Jenner had grow to be a barely tragic determine. However phrase started to seep out that there was going to be some dramatic information.

Sooner or later I known as Jane Sarkin into my workplace and stated, “What about Bruce Jenner?” There have been tales floating about that Jenner was going by reassignment surgical procedure. I stated, “In some unspecified time in the future Jenner’s going to make an announcement. Why not in Vainness Truthful? Why do not you see if we are able to get it?” Our preliminary method was turned down flat. Then Jenner switched to a public relations individual Jane was buddies with. After lots of to-ing and fro-ing, Jane had some information. Jenner was sport to do it with us, she stated.

To get the duvet and the within footage and the story, we went into deep-secrecy mode. As we had completed with Deep Throat, we arrange a particular room on the workplace and coated the home windows with kraft paper. Nothing suspicious about that! We had one key for the room, and a pc to deal with site visitors on a server separate from the one which dealt with the remainder of the journal. Solely eight individuals within the workplace knew in regards to the undertaking. I assigned Annie Leibovitz to do the images and Buzz Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the writer of Friday Night time Lights, to do the story. I believed Buzz could be perfect. He may discuss sports activities, and on condition that he had dabbled with a little bit of cross-dressing, he may converse within the language of ladies’s finery as nicely.  Buzz made plenty of journeys west as Bruce started the method of transition. The plan was that Bruce would have surgical procedure after which recuperate in isolation at his house in Malibu. Our settlement was that nobody else was allowed to go to him throughout this era. Solely Buzz. Because the reporting progressed, we had points to deal with, together with discovering girls’s garments for a six-foot, two-inch former athlete after which smuggling essentially the most well-known photographer on the earth right into a home that was surrounded by paparazzi. Phrase had gotten out about Jenner, and there have been even information helicopters circling overhead. We put safety guards across the perimeter. After which we put the whole workers for the shoot in two giant vans with darkened home windows. Jane and Buzz have been in one among them, as was Buzz’s editor, Dana Brown. Later, Jane described strolling in with Annie’s staff. “The home regarded out at a good looking vista of Malibu. Very modest home. However a good looking pool. You stroll up the steps, and as I come up, this individual is coming in direction of me in a silk gown with marabou feathers, and kitten heels with marabou feathers. Her legs are glistening with satin oil. The hair is down, and the palms are large. She says to me, ‘Hello, I am Caitlyn.'”

As soon as we had the story and the shoot, it was time to select the duvet and determine what to say on it. We toyed with any variety of choices. Lastly, I simply wrote the road “Name Me Caitlyn.” I figured that, by the point the difficulty hit the  newsstands, her title could be all over the place, and we would not need to say far more than that. We have been nonetheless in comparatively primitive digital occasions, however we determined to make it the primary cowl we ever launched on-line. No ready round for the printing and binding and supply vans—all fixed sources of leaks. We ready a quick description and a brief video that had been filmed in the course of the shoot. At midday on the appointed day, we launched our story to the world. A dozen or so of us sat at a protracted borrowed convention desk, watching the site visitors on a giant TV monitor. It began slowly after which, because the minutes clicked by, the graph arm simply started to climb till it was fully vertical. I do not know whether or not you possibly can “break” the web or not, however whether it is attainable, we absolutely got here shut.

From “When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures Through the Final Golden Age of Magazines” by Graydon Carter, revealed on March 25, 2025, by Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random Home, LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Graydon Carter.

Get the e-book right here:

“When the Going Was Good” by Graydon Carter

Purchase domestically from Bookshop.org

For more information: