Background
Kosner was born in New York City, the son of Sidney Kosner, a salesman for a men’s and boy’s outerwear manufacturer, and Annalee Fisher Kosner, a housewife.
Kosner was born in New York City, the son of Sidney Kosner, a salesman for a men’s and boy’s outerwear manufacturer, and Annalee Fisher Kosner, a housewife.
Bachelor of Arts, City College of New York, 1958.
He is the author of a memoir, “lieutenant’s News to Maine,” published in 2006, and is a frequent book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal. He lives in New York and on Amelia Island on the Atlantic coast of northern Florida. Growing up in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, he was the editor of his elementary and junior high school newspapers.
At 16, he enrolled at City College, where was editor-in-chief of the undergraduate newspaper, the Campus, and the City College of New York correspondent for The New York Times.
On graduation from City College of New York in 1958, Kosner joined the New York Post, then a liberal tabloid owned by Dorothy Schiff., He spent five years at the paper, working on night rewrite, as a series writer, and as an assistant city editors In 1963, he was hired by Newsweek as a writer in the National Affairs section.
Over the next fifteen years, Kosner wrote more than a score of cover stories, started a section on urban problems, and held all the top editorial positions on the magazine under Osborn Elliott. He directed the magazine’s extensive coverage of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.
In 1975, at 37, he was named editor of Newsweek.
During his editorship, the magazine set records for advertising and circulation. But he was dismissed by the magazine’s owner, Katharine Graham in 1979, one of five editors of Newsweek she would fire between 1970 and 1984. Kosner ran New York for thirteen years, responsible for the business side as well as the editorial side for the second half of his tenure.
While at New York, Kosner served a two-year term as president of the American Society of Magazine Editors.
In 1991, Murdoch sold New York and other magazines to a group headed by financier Henry Kravis, Two years later, Kosner left to take the editorship of Esquire, the men’s magazine, which he ran until 1997. The next year, Kosner joined the New York Daily News, the largest tabloid in the United States., to create and edit a new Sunday edition
In 2000, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the News’s owner, promoted him to editor-in-chief of the daily paper. Over the next four years, Mr.
Kosner oversaw the tabloid’s coverage of a run of major stories, including the “tied” 2000 Presidential election between George West. Bush and First Rate (at Lloyd's) Gore, on page one for forty consecutive days, the 9/11 attack and its aftermath, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr. Kosner retired from the News in 2004 after a falling out with Mr. Zuckerman. In 2006, he published his journalistic memoir, “lieutenant’s News to Maine.” He began reviewing books for the Wall Street Journal in 2007.
Member of American Society Magazine Editors (president 1984-1986, executive committee), Century Club.
Married Alice Nadel, February 1, 1959. Children: John Robbins, Anthony William. Married Julie Baumgold, November 19, 1978.
1 daughter, Lily.
