The word ‘unicorn’ gets thrown around a lot these days. But to Maggie Bullock and Rachel Baker of The Spread, Sarah Ball is the Real Deal. The editor of WSJ. Magazine is a student of old-guard, in-the-trenches, work-on-a-story-for-years magazine making, which has earned her cred among the Jim Nelsons and David Grangers of the biz.
She’s also a digital native with a flare for experimentation and a new media scrappiness. Ball spent her career bridging those divides predominantly at Vanity Fair and GQ, where she helped those titles join the digital revolution—much more stylishly and convincingly than many of her competitors.
Arguably more than any other editor of her generation, she brings print-era rigor and also the romance of the whole magazine-making endeavor to digital-era reality. That’s why when the Vanity Fair editor-in-chief job came open last spring, Ball was right at the top of The Spread’s list for who should get the gig.
The wind blew a different way, as we all know by now, and she’s happy at WSJ. But when you listen to their chat, you’ll get why their money is on her.
There’s a lot of pessimism in journalism these days for good reason, but they challenge you to listen to this conversation without getting just as swept up as the interviewers did in Ball’s passion for magazines. It’s almost enough to make us believe that print is not in fact dead. Not yet, at least.
Read the full episode transcript here.
Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) is a podcast about magazines and the people who made (and make) them. Magazines that combined thought-provoking attitudes and values with a distinctive look and feel, and cast a long and powerful shadow on American culture and public discourse. Hear stories and learn lessons from legendary designers, editors, writers, publishers, photographers, illustrators, photo editors, and more—stories and lessons that capture a magical history of innovation and inspiration, and that point the way forward. We’ll go deep into the lives and careers of this astonishingly talented group of creators, and tease out what these giants—past and present—have to teach the next generation of creators.
If you’re in the magazine business—if you’re in any business focused on content creation—this podcast is for you.
This episode is made possible by PIDLLP sponsors Commercial Type and Freeport Press.
The team behind Print is Dead (Long Live Print!) also produces The Full Bleed, a podcast about the future of magazines and the magazines of the future.
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