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Culture

Interview Magazine Folds

Interview Magazine Goes Out of Business

Interview Magazine, the publication founded by Andy Warhol in 1969, announced on Monday that it is ending both its print and web publications.  Former staffers, like online editor Trey Taylor,  broke the news on Twitter this morning and editor Ezra Marcus told CNN Money that the publication “folding both web and print effective immediately” after an all-hands meeting where staffers were informed that the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

In 1989, billionaire art collector and Warhol admirer Peter Brant purchased the glossy art and culture magazine from Warhol’s estate. According to the New York Post, the magazine was evicted from its Soho office in February after Brant Publications apparently stopped paying the landlord.

Former editorial director Fabien Baron and his wife, stylist Ludivine Poiblanc, recently sued the magazine over an alleged $600,000 in unpaid wages and creative director Karl Templer reportedly left the magazine in April over $280,000 in unpaid invoices. A source told WWD that Interview “owes everybody money.” From WWD:

Baron’s lawsuit is not the only one Interview is dealing with. Former sales representative and eventually associate publisher Jane Katz last year sued the magazine for unpaid wages of more than $230,000, along with claims that she was unjustly fired. Dan Ragone, who was Interview’s president for six years, also sued in 2016 for allegedly unpaid wages of about $170,000 and that case is still working its way through the courts.

It’s undoubtedly a tragic end for the magazine once dubbed “The Crystal Ball of Pop Culture” because of its iconic covers and lengthy, often freewheeling interviews with artists and people of note conducted by their celebrity peers.