In these days of “influencers” and “getting paid” and “content as commerce” it’s difficult to look at a personality profile in a national magazine (like The New Yorker) as anything more than a puff piece designed to increase revenue for the person being featured.
How can a writer, in this case surfer and Pulitzer Prize winner William Finnegan, feel like anything more than a small cog in Kai Lenny’s PR machine? Does it even matter if the story is good? Or well written? Or insightful? It’s Kai Lenny in The New Yorker, getting more views and more attention so he can get more cash from more sponsors. And maybe that’s how it’s always been, but lately, it seems just a little blown out. Then again, we’re likely part of the problem as we’ve written and posted this before even reading the story, because, why?
[Link: The New Yorker]
