Categories: OLD Media Moves

Fortune magazine repeats itself

Peter Carlson of The Washington Post takes a look at the latest cover story of Fortune magazine and notes that its portrayal of young workers being spoiled and demanding sounds eerily familiar — they wrote the same story back in 1969.

Carlson wrote, “After six pages of dubious generalizations written in whiz-bang biz-mag prose, my eyes were glazing over when suddenly the piece switched to a strange first-person narration:

“‘It’s 12:45 a.m., this story is due next week and I’m hard at work. By that I mean I am sitting at a desk. In my house. Wearing yellow ducky slippers . . . ‘

“The author, a Gen Y’er with the wonderful name of Nadira A. Hira, goes on and on about her wacky work habits. As she writes, she’s watching ‘The Cosby Show’ and conducting online chats with three friends.

“‘When things really get going, I’ll put on ‘Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,’ which has kept me company through every major story of my writing career,’ she writes. ‘In short, I’m ridiculous.’

“So is this article.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.