Jann Wenner is the founder of both Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal magazines, making him one of the most well-known figures in publishing today. Born on August 7, 1946, in New York City, Wenner grew up with his brother and sister in an upper-middle class family. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where he participated in the Free Speech Movement during his time there. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Wenner went on to attend graduate school at Columbia University School of General Studies where he studied sociology before dropping out to pursue a career in publishing. Jann Wenner: American Magazine Mogul and Free Speech Advocate
Table of Contents
Bio
In 1963, while attending the University of California, Berkeley Jann Wenner published his first magazine called Snapshot to avoid the scrutiny of school authorities. In 1967 he co-founded Rolling Stone with Ralph Gleason. The magazine was a success from its very first issue, publishing stories that are still remembered decades later. Today, Rolling Stone has become one of the most influential magazines in the world with a circulation over 1 million copies. Jann Wenner: American Magazine Mogul and Free Speech Advocate
Family
Wenner was born in New York City, to high school teacher-turned-advertising executive John J. Jack Wenner and writer Lois Roane Wenner. He has two younger brothers, Douglas (b. 1947) and James (b. 1954).
Physical info
Wenner grew up in Berkeley, California. He enrolled at Berkeley in 1961 as a student in the university’s College of Chemistry. During his time there, he became involved with the Free Speech Movement but was arrested for refusing to disperse during an on-campus protest. He later changed his major to English literature and graduated from UC Berkeley.
After dropping out of graduate school at the University of Paris, he returned to San Francisco where he worked as head copywriter for advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather.
Career
In 1965, while a student at UC Berkeley, Jann teamed up with his friend Ralph Gleason to publish what would be the first ever magazine about rock music. Through a series of articles on the San Francisco scene entitled Rock Around the Clock, the two successfully pitched the idea for Rolling Stone. In 1967, just a year after Rolling Stone’s inception, Jann published an illustrated history of Bay Area rock bands. Jann Wenner: American Magazine Mogul and Free Speech Advocate
Awards
Mr. Wenner has received a number of prestigious awards, including the National Press Foundation’s Award for Excellence in Journalism. He also won two Grammy Awards for best long-form music video in 1993.
Net worth
Jann Wenner is an American magazine magnate who is a co-founder of the popular culture magazine Rolling Stone, and former owner of Men’s Journal magazine. He participated in the Free Speech Movement while attending the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating from school in 1962, he went to work for Ralph J. Gleason at his jazz magazine in San Francisco.
sweetest time
Wikipedia reports that Jann Wenner is a world-renowned publisher, musician, writer, and songwriter. He was also involved in the free speech movement during his time at Berkeley. Rolling Stone, one of the most influential rock music magazines today, was created by Jann Wenner in 1967 with co-founder Ralph Gleason.
In addition to creating Rolling Stone magazine, he is also well known for founding Men’s Journal magazine.
first love
Wenner attended California’s University of Berkeley, where he became an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement and Free Speech Movement. He interviewed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Pacifica Radio station WBAI in 1959; as an editor of the San Francisco-based newspaper The Berkeley Barb, he was one of 250 people who traveled to Alabama to protest segregation of public facilities in 1963; from 1967-1969, he was publisher of the Los Angeles based Rolling Stone magazine
first success
Wenner started his journalism career by printing the school newspaper in high school. He is the founder of several magazines including Men’s Journal, Us Weekly, The New York Times Style Magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal and Cosmopolitan. In 1967 he co-founded Rolling Stone magazine with Ralph J. Gleason, who was an earlier student of Northrop Frye at the University of Toronto.
dearest person
Jann Wenner’s life is an example of someone that stood up for what they believed in. Though he was just a college student at the time, Jann participated in the 1965 Free Speech Movement which helped make his path to success possible.
Personal life
Wenner was born in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Mills (née Jann) and G. David Wenner. His father was a vice president at The New York Times Company.
Origins of Rolling Stone
In the fall of 1967, student activist Jann Wenner got a job as a staff writer for the University of California, Berkeley’s independent student newspaper, The Daily Californian. He also became increasingly involved in political activism and began speaking at demonstrations. One year later, he graduated from the UC Berkeley with a degree in English, with an emphasis on creative writing.
Success as Magazines Publisher
In 1965, Jann Wenner co-founded the rock and roll magazine Rolling Stone with his friend, Ralph J. Gleason. Starting out of his childhood home in San Francisco, he and Gleason published an eight-page biweekly magazine with a free press run of just 40 copies. In six months, circulation had grown to 60,000.
Philosophy on Writing
Like many of my undergraduate professors in college, I often tell my students to think of me not as their professor but as their guide. Rather than lecture them about the facts, I get them actively engaged in finding the answers themselves by using a range of sources from secondary to primary. In this sense, my goal is for students to build on what they already know about a subject by listening in class for new information and synthesizing it with the knowledge they already have.
Controversies and Criticism
What was a long, illustrious career in magazine publishing took an unprecedented turn in 1996 when Rolling Stone published an issue that featured a photo of Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales on the cover with the words Charles & Diana: The Love Story. The company was accused of illegally invading their privacy for publishing this photo. Even though the photos were well-intentioned, they were nevertheless condemned by many as sensationalistic. Yet Jann insisted on the validity of their coverage.
Personal Life – Relationships with Women
The most public relationship that Wenner had with a woman was with actress Jane Fonda. They dated for five years, during which time Fonda was married to another man.
Q.&A.
Q. What is your favorite Rolling Stone memory?
A. My favorite Rolling Stone memories are seeing, firsthand, the impact that our writing had on what was happening in America – from John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono speaking about The Beatles being bigger than Jesus, to Hunter S. Thompson’s unvarnished coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign.
Who is the CEO of Rolling Stone magazine?
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Jann Wenner spent his high school years at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. There he participated in the 1962 mass sit-in that led to the banning of textbooks for containing material regarded as too conservative. After graduation, he attended the University of California at Berkeley.
Who was the first editor of Rolling Stone magazine?
The first editor of Rolling Stone magazine was Jann S. Wenner, a recent graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. He had previously been managing editor for Ramparts magazine, which Rolling Stone was originally modeled after. Rolling Stone was a combination of pop culture and politics from the start, trying to capture the spirit of that era with its mix of music, fine arts, dance and politics.
Why is Rolling Stone magazine named that?
In the late 1960s, student leader and journalist John Burris created the term Rolling Stone to describe his vision of an idealistic culture through music, popular films, TV, radio and magazines. He lived up to that promise when he co-founded Rolling Stone magazine with a group of friends in San Francisco in 1967. The group included Jann Wenner who went on to publish Bob Dylan’s first interview as well as work by John Lennon, George Harrison, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards.