Friday Spill: Early Cover Release, New Yorker Issue Of January 19, 2026; Personal History…First Job, First Brush With A Publishing Company

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Early Cover Release, The New Yorker Issue Of January 19, 2026

As happens from time-to-time, The New Yorker early releases its cover image days before the usual Monday morning publication. This latest cover is by Barry Blitt. As suggested some time ago here, perhaps the magazine should consider running an online daily cover along with a weekly cover for the print magazine. The daily cover could be timely — keeping up with the news, allowing the print edition cover to roam through other territories.

Barry Blitt has posted sketches for this latest cover here.

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Personal History: First Job, First Brush With A Publishing Company

In 1967, getting a paper route was just about the only steady employment for a 12 year old in my hometown of Bloomfield, New Jersey. After applying for a job at The Independent Press, the local weekly, and being accepted, I was summoned to the paper’s headquarters in the town’s center, and sat in a circle with other boys who’d just signed on. The fellow in charge gave us what was probably a standard spiel concerning our paper delivery responsibilities. Once he’d wrapped up his monologue, he singled me out, saying: “Did you understand everything I said?” I answered, “Yes,” to which he responded, “Well you’re the first kid who has.” And everyone laughed. The fellow then handed each of us a heavy-duty green bag emblazoned with the paper’s name and catchy tagline: “All The Local News.”

I didn’t stay a paperboy very long — a couple of months at most; I couldn’t handle the stress of knocking on doors to collect money from subscribers. But hey — I was allowed to keep the green bag, which nearly 60 years later is still in excellent shape.