Radar (magazine)
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Radar is an American online and print publication that features an eclectic, irreverent mix of articles on entertainment, fashion, politics, and general human interest. Despite a gloomy publishing climate, the high-propfile, independently published title has been relaunched twice (most recently in September, 2006), financed by a number of high-profile backers. Its founder and editor-in-chief is Maer Roshan, a well-known editor and writer who held top spots at Interview, New York and Talk, amonmg other publications.
Backed by a group of leading writers, editors and photographers, Roshan published two critically acclaimed "test issues" of Radar in 2003, with funds he raised from friends and family. The magazine's first issues spurred a frenzy of media attention, and won support from major advertisers including Prada,Target, AOL, HBO and the Gap. Buoyed by the success of these test issues, Roshan spent a year searching for permanent backing. New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman agreed to back the title in 2005.
Radar's first print issue under Zuckerman was published in May 2005, and sold out in many cities across the nation. According to Roshan, the magazine was "targeted to upwardly mobile, educated women & men aged 25-39." Like its readers, Radar was "smart but accessible, stylish but not superficial and equally at home with high & low culture." The magazine also produced a popular daily website, radaronline.com, which featured breaking news and insider gossip, interviews with leading political and entertainment figures, and provocative columns on media, sex, pop culture, and politics.
In its 2005 incarnation, the magazine published several high-profile stories, including an intimate report on the daily lives of soldiers in Iraq, a behind-the-scenes account of Walt Disney World's costumed characters, and an exposé of "T.V.'s dumbest, vainest, meanest anchors." The second issue contained a scathing article on Tom Cruise and his involvement with the Church of Scientology that made headlines around the world. The cover of the magazine depicted Cruise as St. Sebastian, pierced with arrows. This was an homage to the famous April 1968 Esquire Magazine cover showing Muhammad Ali in the same pose. George Lois, the legendary ad-man who designed the Esquire cover, came out of retirement to design Radar's homage.
Despite the magazine's apparent success, Radar folded after publishing three issues in November, 2005. Though Zuckerman had suggested to the New York Times that he was prepared to fund the magazine for seven years, he blamed "lack of advertising traction" for his decision to shutter the magazine. But some published reports suggested that the shut-down was related to the Cruise article and other stories that ruffled Zuckerman's powerful friends. At the time of the folding Roshan said he was in talks with new investors in the hope that his magazine could continue publishing. Six months later he announced that he had found new backing.
[edit] Second revival
Radar was back in the news in June 2006, when editor Maer Roshan announced that he had secured the funding to re-launch the newsmaking venture for a second time. Radar's next print issue will reportedly be published in early 2007, backed by a group of leading investors led by Yusef Jackson, the son of Jesse Jackson. In June 2006, Jackson told the Chicago Tribune that he had raised enough capital to keep the venture afloat until 2011. The Radar website, Radaronline.com, which publishes original and daily news, gossip, features, Q&As and humor pieces, was re-launched in September 2006, and drew millions of visitors in its first two months. [1]
