Dear New York Magazine readers,

I hope you and your family are healthy and finding your way through this difficult, absolutely bizarre time. Here at the magazine, we have found ourselves as disoriented and exhausted as everyone else we know—but also, at the same time, focused and energized. We always try our hardest to see the world as it changes. For over 50 years, New York has been a chronicle of the new, turned on by the circus of ambition that swirls wherever there’s movement and chaos and momentum, and rallying with urgency to document when the ground shifts beneath us. We are all living through an extraordinary upheaval of American life, and this has had a clarifying effect on us as journalists. We are doing our very best to tell the story of our time, daily and biweekly, across our digital and print magazine.

The magazine issue we just published was particularly moving to make. We dedicated the feature well to the project of listening to the very old—to a generation of unusual political power and also extreme vulnerability to the virus. Each time I combed through various drafts of stories, I was flooded with sadness and warmth. Also, astonishment at the largeness of the lives in our pages. The issue is being published digitally over the course of the week, stitched across our various verticals with the title “The Longest Lives.” I encourage you to carve some time out of your quarantine treadmill and dive in.

And I also ask that you consider subscribing to New York. We are a business increasingly supported by our readers, a fact that can sometimes be nerve-racking. But it is also liberating and, fundamentally, a very good thing for our journalism. We are making a digital and print magazine with a simple mission: to earn your sustained attention, your devotion even. We try our hardest to live up to your expectations while also always finding ways to upend them; to challenge ourselves to challenge you; to earn your trust and affection and an occasional laugh. We publish about 100 stories a day across the Cut, Grub Street, Intelligencer, the Strategist, and Vulture. Every two weeks, we painstakingly assemble a print magazine that is as rich with articles and photography as it has ever been. Our Instagram accounts are brimming with takeovers and happenings and fun, weird stuff. I am extremely proud of our staff of roughly 200 who pour their heart into their work every single day. If you enjoy New York, please consider a subscription for yourself and those you love. Help us establish a vibrant future for the magazine’s next 50 years. And thank you for reading.

— David Haskell • Editor-in-chief