The co-founder of Spy, former editor-in-chief of New York, and novelist, Andersen has been at (or near) the center of the media universe for more than two decades.

An Omaha native, Andersen arrived in New York in 1976 and spent a day working as a copyboy at the Daily News before moving to NBC where he wrote copy for Today's Gene Shalit. He soon decamped for Time and spent eight years as the magazine's architecture and design critic, leaving in 1986 to team up with pal Graydon Carter to launch Spy, the widely imitated satire mag that savaged the rich and powerful. Andersen was left holding the bag in 1991 when Carter suddenly jumped ship for the New York Observer. He quickly negotiated his own departure, too, and returned to Time for a spell before being named editor-in-chief of New York in 1994. His tenure at New York, however, lasted just two years: In August of 1996, he was fired, either because circulation was flat (the story according to New York's then-parent company, K-III) or because, as Andersen claims, he infuriated K-III's principal owner, Henry Kravis, by publishing an exposé that featured Kravis's pals, Steven Rattner and Felix Rohatyn. Andersen headed off to The New Yorker where he served as a staff writer and columnist. He then embarked on what would become his biggest career failure, Inside.com, an ill-timed media play that flamed out spectacularly when the dot-com bubble burst. Since then, he's published a few novels, hosted a radio show Studio 360 on WNYC, penned a column for New York, worked as an op-ed columnist for the Times and editor-at-large for Random House, and written several screenplays. [Image via Getty]