Kit Rachlis

Last updated
Kit Rachlis
Born
Christopher Rachlis

Paris, France
Education Yale University (BA)
OccupationEditor
Spouse(s)
Ariel Swartley
​
(divorced)​

Amy Albert
Children1

Kit Rachlis is an American journalist and award-winning editor who has held posts at The Village Voice , LA Weekly , Los Angeles Times , Los Angeles magazine, The American Prospect , The California Sunday Magazine, and currently ProPublica. Considered a "writer's editor," [1] Rachlis is best known as a practitioner of the long-form nonfiction narrative. [2] [3] Writers working under his guidance have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize [4] , the James Beard Foundation's M.F.K. Distinguished Writing Award [5] , the PEN Center literary journalism award, and dozens of City & Regional Magazine Association awards. In addition, he has edited more than a dozen books, including The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein.

Contents

Early life and family

Rachlis is the son of Eugene Rachlis, an author, book publisher, and magazine editor, and Mary Katherine (Mickey) Rachlis, an economics correspondent for the Journal of Commerce who wrote under the byline M.K. Sharp. [6] He was born in Paris, France, where his father was serving as press attaché for the Marshall Plan, and raised in New York City. He attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in American studies from Yale University. [7]

Career

Rachlis entered journalism as a pop music critic, reviewing albums for Rolling Stone that included 1970s works by Bob Dylan, Blondie, The Cars, Tom Waits, and Elvis Costello. [8] From 1982 to 1984, Rachlis was arts editor of the alternative weekly Boston Phoenix , then went on to serve as executive editor of The Village Voice until 1988.

In 1988, Rachlis moved across the country to become editor-in-chief of LA Weekly. [9] He was credited with professionalizing the paper and boosting its political and cultural coverage. [10] Former columnist Marc Cooper would later write that under Rachlis the Weekly became "more slick, professional, better-edited but flatter, less willing to gamble and risk." [11] In 1993, Rachlis was fired due to a power struggle with publisher Michael Sigman. Several of the Weekly''s best-known voices resigned in protest, including Michael Ventura, John Powers, Rubén Martínez, Ella Taylor, Tom Carson, and Steve Erickson. [9]

Rachlis joined the L.A. Times in 1994, first as a senior editor at the paper's Sunday magazine, then as a senior projects editor. He worked closely with some of the paper's most accomplished writers, including Amy Wallace, Sonia Nazario, Barry Siegel, Rick Meyer, and Jesse Katz.

In 2000, Rachlis was named editor-in-chief of Los Angeles magazine, which had just been bought by Emmis Communications for more than $30 million. [12] Under his leadership, the magazine gained instant recognition, with Amy Wallace earning a National Magazine Award nomination for her 2001 profile of then-Variety editor Peter Bart, "Hollywood's Information Man." [13] During Rachlis's tenure, the magazine went on to earn seven more National Magazine Award nominations as well as 39 City & Regional Magazine Association gold medals. [14] The 2008 Financial Crisis took a heavy toll on Los Angeles magazine. On May 15, 2009, citing his "restlessness" in an e-mail to the staff, he announced his resignation, effective June 26. Emmis, which named Mary Melton as his successor, praised Rachlis for "elevating Los Angeles magazine to must-read status." [15]

In 2011, Rachlis left Los Angeles to become editor of The American Prospect, the Washington, D.C.-based monthly political journal founded by Robert Kuttner, Robert Reich, and Paul Starr. [16]

Rachlis returned to Los Angeles in 2014 to become a senior editor at The California Sunday Magazine. [17] His work there included editing "When Can We Really Rest?" Nadja Drost's 2021 Pulitzer Prize-winning story on crossing the Darien Gap. [18] In September 2020, the magazine's owner, Emerson Collective, severed ties with California Sunday's parent company, Pop-Up Magazine Productions. A month later, Pop-Up's founders announced that the magazine would cease publication.

In 2021, Rachlis joined the staff of ProPublica as a senior editor.

Personal life

Rachlis lives in Los Angeles. He is married to the psychotherapist Amy Albert. [19] He is divorced from the writer and critic Ariel Swartley, with whom he has one daughter, Austen.

Notes

  1. ↑ Carr, David (February 3, 2003). "Media; Los Angeles Magazine Banks on a New Voice".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ↑ Turner, Richard (May 29, 2009). "Media Meltdown: LA Mag Cans Its Feature Writers". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on September 26, 2012. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  3. ↑ Rieder, Rem (June 5, 2013). "Long-form Journalism Makes Comeback". USA Today. Archived from the original on December 4, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  4. ↑ "2021 Pulitzer Prize Winners". Columbia News. 2023-10-27. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  5. ↑ Balla, Lesley (2007-05-08). "James Beard Award Winners Announced, LA Gets One". Eater LA. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  6. ↑ Obituaries (Nov 12, 1986). "Eugene Rachlis, Editor, Author and Publisher". The New York Times . Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  7. ↑ Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. "Kit Rachlis". USC Libraries. Archived from the original on October 13, 2012. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  8. ↑ Rachlis, Kit (1978). "This Year's Model: Elvis Costello". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 1, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  9. 1 2 Blume, Howard; Pelisek, Christine (Dec 25, 2003). "Where Are They Now?". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  10. ↑ Blume, Howard; Pelisek, Christine (2003-12-25). "Where Are They Now? - LA Weekly". www.laweekly.com. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  11. ↑ Cooper, Marc (Jan 9, 2009). "An Obituary for the LA Weekly". Global Grind. Archived from the original on October 27, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  12. ↑ Carr, David (Feb 3, 2003). "Los Angeles Magazine Banks on a New Voice". The New York Times . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Annotation Tuesday! Amy Wallace and one of "the most despised and feared" men in Hollywood". Nieman Foundation. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  14. ↑ "Kit Rachlis – USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy". communicationleadership.usc.edu. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  15. ↑ Roderick, Kevin (May 15, 2009). "Emmis Release on Rachlis Departure". LAObserved. Archived from the original on April 11, 2012. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  16. ↑ Cogan, Marin (June 5, 2012), "The Last Days of The American Prospect?", GQ, archived from the original on December 10, 2014, retrieved December 4, 2014
  17. ↑ Swisher, Kara (September 15, 2014), "Can Print and Online Content Just Get Along? California Magazine Hopes So.", re/code, archived from the original on December 7, 2014, retrieved December 4, 2014
  18. ↑ Kit Rachlis, Nadja Drost (February 3, 2022). ""How I Did It"". www.pulitzercenter.org.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ↑ Kelly, Janet Bennett (April 29, 2011). "OnLove: Amy Albert Weds Kit Rachlis". Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 14, 2016. Retrieved March 31, 2012.

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