Most Magazines Stoking End-of-Millennium Fever

In a whimsical note, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter told readers this month that his publication “has the distinction, if you can call it that,” of failing to publish an issue marking the end of the 20th century or the millennium.

“You can chalk this up to laziness, incompetence or just a general millennial ennui,” he wrote, describing his refusal to jump on the bandwagon. “I prefer the last explanation.”

Readers of many other magazines, however, are getting a vastly different message: The millennium matters and the millennium sells. As the clock ticks down to 2000, newsstands are filled with issues commemorating the last 100 years, along with “Top 100” lists in sports, medicine, entertainment and other fields. There are nostalgic reveries, sober assessments of How Far We’ve Come and peeks into the crystal ball.

Overwhelmed by Millennium Issues

Beyond their entertainment value--and ability to sell ads--these issues create an “instant canon” of culture and history for Americans, whose institutional memory seems to be slipping year by year. Readers may not remember every detail about every tabloid crime that shocked the nation, but there is no shortage of weekly and monthly magazines to remind them.

“You’re always going to have magazines doing this at the end of a year, so people won’t forget important events, but with the end of a century it takes on more significance than ever,” says Roy Brunett, Newsweek’s communications director. “You don’t want to do it just to copy everyone, though, because then it becomes a mishmash and readers get lost.”

Indeed, some may already feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of millennium issues. There have been or will be special publications by Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Life, Rolling Stone, Essence, Gourmet, Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, ESPN, American Heritage, Esquire, Fortune and many others.

In some cases, the issue is devoted to a single theme. Essence, forgoing the temptation to chronicle the 100 top moments in African American history, will focus on the black family in a special year-ending issue. Rolling Stone will take a look back at the movers and shakers in rock ‘n’ roll and then devote a second millennial issue to the future of American culture and politics. Carving out a separate niche, U.S. News & World Report devoted its sole special issue to “The Year 1000,” looking for meaningful cultural comparisons between then and now.

“We were struck by the fact that life was so fragile back then,” said Victoria Pope, co-managing editor. “The message was that things change and fade away. We Americans like to think of ourselves as the center of the postwar world, but in 1000, Cordova was considered the Paris of the world. It was a center of learning. It had torch lights going all night long. It’s still there, but it doesn’t have that position now.”

Nation Has a Thing Called Love for Elvis

In a similar vein, Time’s special issues have tried to spark a national debate about America’s past and present, according to managing editor Walter Isaacson. The dialogue will peak with next month’s unveiling of the magazine’s choice for “Person of the Century,” but long before that “we got people talking about democracy and totalitarianism, and although we could have made money by putting different faces on the covers, this was a way to get at what’s important to us and why.”

Like other publications, Time has solicited online reader input for its “Person of the Century” competition. But cyber-democracy can get messy: On Friday, the magazine’s public tally on its Web site ranked Adolf Hitler third in overall voting, behind slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and front-runner Elvis Presley. Isaacson said the magazine will consult historians and other experts in reaching its final decision.

Amid the millennial rush, some observers find little to praise or condemn, dismissing the phenomenon as a marketing campaign dressed up with ideas. “This is the laziest of concepts, to make up lists, but they succeed with readers,” said Sean Elder, media critic for Salon, an online magazine.

“I’m a little tired of these future-oriented pieces about ‘How Well We’ll Live Tomorrow’ because it reminds me of ‘The Jetsons’ and none of that stuff came true. We don’t ride in flying saucers and I don’t have a dog named Astro.”

While few publications share sales data, some boast that their special editions have set records. Mike Kelly, publisher of Entertainment Weekly, says his four special issues on the 100 greatest moments in TV, movies and music, plus the century’s top 100 entertainers, generated $25 million in ad revenues this year, doubling the take from four corresponding 1998 issues.

But financial success can also bring editorial headaches. Like other magazines, Entertainment Weekly has burned the midnight oil trying to figure out which celebrities should go where on its lists. Is Madonna really one of the top 10 entertainers of the last 50 years? How can you put Steven Spielberg on the list and leave out Walt Disney?

“We have to keep in mind who our readers are,” said Mary Kaye Shelling, assistant manager, who noted that editors culled 100 names from more than 400 celebrities, many nominated by readers. “Depending on the issue, we’ve got a core audience of 13-year-olds or people as high as 42. For some people, the Simpsons (#10) are more important than Frank Sinatra (#6).

“And you really run into trouble filling out the lower numbers,” she continued. “How exactly do you explain to someone that Meryl Streep (#38) topped Miles Davis (#39)?”

After a while, the lists blur into each other. American Heritage offers “The 20 Greatest Innovators of the 20th Century”; Esquire presents “The 21 Most Important People of the 21st Century.” Fortune, with obvious irony, presents “100 Years of Superlatives: The Best Products, the Greatest Manager, the Biggest Flops, the Unsung Heroes, the Smartest Ideas.”

On the glamour front, Elle heralds “The Party of the Century,” offering Y2K tips on everything from designer gowns and lip gloss to the gold rush in jewelry-buying as New Year’s 2000 approaches. Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated is preparing its own Dec. 2 televised bash at Madison Square Garden (along with a companion issue) to honor one of six nominees for “Athlete of the Century” in baseball, football, basketball, hockey and individual sports for men and women and U.S. Olympians. The magazine will also be saluting “The Sportsman of the Century” and the “Ten Greatest Moments in Sports History.”

Even the most specialized publications are getting into the act. Writer’s Digest serves up “The 100 Best Writers of the 20th Century”--Stephen King made the list, Franz Kafka did not--while Editor & Publisher marks “The 25 Most Influential Newspaper People of the 20th Century” (Otis Chandler, former publisher of the Los Angeles Times, made the inner circle).

More lists are due between now and Dec. 31, even though many of them will be forgotten by this time next year. Inevitably, some say, America’s millennium fever will give way to fatigue.