Spy, the popular satire magazine of the late 1980s and 1990s, was brought back to life as a digital startup by Hearst-owned Esquire this week.
Original co-founders Graydon Carter and Kurt Andersen are not involved, although they played roles in its revival.
It was a dinner in Connecticut in August Anderson had with Hearst’s new editorial director, Joanna Coles, that dropped a hint.
“I mentioned it in passing that people were always approaching me about bringing it back and I thought this election would be a perfect time,” said Andersen.
While everyone remembers the sobriquet that got stuck on Trump as “short fingered vulgarian,” it was actually the cover of Hillary Clinton dressed as a whip-wielding dominatrix that was one of Spy’s best-selling covers of all time.
Andersen, who penned a letter to readers on Day 1, when the site launched, said he has not been involved beyond that but remarked, “I gave them my godfatherly blessing.”
Carter also has an interest in seeing it click again. “I didn’t think it was a bad idea. But what with my day job, I really couldn’t pitch in. That said, I do wish them well.”
But there is a Carter connection: Graydon’s son Ash Carter is a senior editor at Esquire and is working on the Spy site.
After her dinner, Coles brought the idea to Jay Fielden, the editorial director of Esquire and Town & Country.
That brought in David Carey, the Hearst Magazines president, to license the rights. “I still remember some of the jokes they played more than 20 years later,” said Carey, who declined to say what Hearst paid for the rights. He struck a deal with John “Jo” Colman, who purchased the magazine in 1994 and folded it in 1998.
And there is also a Spy alum still in the mix. Michael Hainey, executive director of editorial at Esquire, is supervising the Spy project. One of his first career jobs was working on Spy in the Graydon/Kurt era.
“We were lucky we did it before there was an internet,” said Andersen. “There was no Comedy Central. It was not the incredibly cluttered media environment we have today.”
Fielden said the Spy project will only run through the election. And while he said ad adjacencies can be purchased, he envisioned it mainly as a humorous traffic generator for the Esquire site.
“We all agreed that the election cycle seemed perfect for it,” said Carey. “That’s all we have planned.”
“Make America funny again,” Fielden said, lampooning the Trump campaign theme of Make America Great Again.