Of Truman Bondage
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
LORD JIM: Truman
Attention, struggling freelancers: James Truman, the editor most responsible for morphing magazines into caption-driven catalogs, is looking to do some actual journalism. There's only one catch: You'll have to work for pocket change.
The former Condé Nast editorial director—who fled the city in 2004 for what was billed as a life of Buddhist-inspired chin-stroking abroad—has been busily working the phones recruiting writers and photographers for his latest launch, Culture + Travel.
According to multiple sources, Truman's new boss, zany Canadian billionairess Louise MacBain, has given the impish trophy editor a comically tiny budget for the title, which is unironically aimed at "high-net-worth patrons of the arts," and set to debut September 24. (Not that MacBain's stingy about her own needs: We're told she hired pricey fashion photographer Steven Klein to take her publicity photo, and keeps a massage therapist on 24-hour call at her vacation home in the Hamptons.)