What's Contemporary Now? Sarah Ball on Editing What’s Contemporary Now at WSJ. Magazine
At this year’s WSJ. Magazine Innovator Awards, Billie Eilish asked, “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? Give your money away” — a line that instantly reverberated far beyond the room. It was a reminder of the event’s magnetic pull and its place as a mirror for culture’s contradictions. Under Editor in Chief Sarah Ball, WSJ. Magazine has become precisely that kind of reflection: glamorous, self-aware, and culturally indispensable.
In this episode, Ball reflects on her path from a D.C. household stacked with newspapers to leading a magazine that continues to grow in both influence and revenue. She speaks about the art of editing in an age of speed, the new language of luxury journalism, and the enduring power of a story told with precision and care.
““I loved beautiful glossy fashion and style media, but I also loved very tart writing about style and fashionable people — that eyebrow-raised, gimlet-eyed, social scorecard kind of writing that mixed elegance and critique.” - Sarah Ball
Episode Highlights:
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On Growing Up Surrounded by Media — Raised in a Washington, D.C. household that received five newspapers a day, Sarah describes an early life shaped by constant conversation, curiosity, and the sound of pages turning.
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On the Early Spark — Between Capitol Hill’s newsroom corridors and stacks of Vogue and Vanity Fair, she found herself drawn to storytelling that combined politics, aesthetics, and human behavior.
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On Robin Givhan’s Influence — She credits Givhan’s fashion criticism for teaching her that clothing could be language — a way to read power, politics, and cultural change.
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On the London Years — A summer at the Associated Press covering the highs and lows of early-aughts London — from Kate Moss’s tabloid saga to art auctions and nightlife — cemented her love for culture writing.
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On the Golden Age of Vanity Fair — She recalls the thrill of that newsroom under Graydon Carter: “You don’t know you’re in a golden age until the golden age is over.”
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On Quality Over Quantity — Ball resists the speed-at-all-costs mentality of digital publishing: “If what you’re serving is reheated garbage, are you really going to keep that reader?”
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On The WSJ. Audience — She describes WSJ. Magazine as a luxury product with a discerning readership: “They pay a lot to access our content, therefore they expect a lot.”
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On Visual Storytelling — A cover, she says, must surprise: “It has to show you someone in a new light — a story and an image that feel like an experience you can’t get anywhere else.”
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On Video and the Future of Formats — Ball sees video — particularly conversational formats like podcasts on camera — as one of the most powerful frontiers in media: “The informality of the video podcast is replacing entire swaths of traditional television. These conversations now shape culture in real time.”
- On What’s Contemporary Now — For Ball, it’s humor. “A playful and unself-serious sense of humor feels most contemporary — people laughing together again, not at each other.”
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