Former Deadspin staffer Greg Howard, now a David Carr Fellow at The New York Times Magazine, published his first piece today, about the low odds of activist DeRay Mckesson’s bid for mayor of Baltimore. Read it here.

The New York Times Magazine has a fantastic story up today about a male model named Brad Kroenig, who has been a muse and (platonic) companion to legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld for over a decade. The story follows Kroenig, pictured above, and Lagerfeld to a runway show in Dubai, and provides us with utterly incredible Lagerfeld quotes and anecdotes along the way.

"There's some indication that what makes a bisexual person may be less about what they're strongly attracted to and more about what they're not averse to." - An American Institute of Bisexuality board member, as quoted in this fascinating New York Times Magazine story on the quest for scientific proof of bisexuality.

New York Times Magazine editor Hugo Lindgren will be leaving at the end of the year. Who's his replacement? The Times revealed today: we're stalling! Stalling!

This is the thing about Anthony Weiner: He's just so very, very seductive. Irresistible. He makes you do things you'd never dream of doing. Well, not you. Some people. They just want to surrender to him. The failed mayoral candidate tells GQ's Marshall Sella about how this sad fact undermined his campaign from the start, when he offered himself and his wife, Huma Abedin, up to the New York Times Magazine for the profile, by Jonathan Van Meter, that was to mark his return to political respectability:

When writer Noah Gallagher Shannon's piece about being on a commercial plane that was "about to crash" due to a landing-gear failure came out in the New York Times Magazine two weeks ago, readers were riveted by a story of every traveler's worst fear come to life.

"Nora Ephron's Final Act," the New York Times Magazine story about the final days of writer/director Nora Ephron and the cancer that led to them, is as adoring and intimate as you'd expect coming from her accomplished writer son, Jacob Bernstein (he contributes regularly to the Times and his father is Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame).

The New York Times Magazine has created a terrifying "video gallery of dreams and transformations" of thirteen different actresses "whose performances defined the year in film." Here you will see talents like Naomi Watts and Marion Cotillard doing all of the things we love to see our bravest, most creative actresses do: lying down, blinking, opening their mouths and leaving them open for minutes at a time, looking, smiling quietly to themselves, clenching their fists, weeping silently at the sky, and twirling - always twirling. That said, it also shows us what Rebel Wilson would look like as a mermaid, which is tremendous and a gift and well worth seeing.

The New York Times Magazine's cover story this week is about Edward Conard, a wealthy private equity titan and former business partner of Mitt Romney's, who has written a book arguing that income inequality is actually good for the middle and lower classes, because the promise of great wealth spurs more investing and risk-taking which eventually benefits all of society.

Ariel Kaminer's story about Jennifer Westfeldt's films in the latest issue of the New York Times Magazine explains that, whereas Westfeldt's last two movies were set "in a storied version of New York, where people shop at Zabar's and bump into one another's psychotherapists and are yelled at by lovably grouchy white taxi drivers," her new film has moved on to more vital territory:

Have you always dreamed of writing one of those "Lives" essays that appear on the back page of the New York Times Magazine? Yes? Jesus. Our readers used to be cool. Anyhow. The point is, the magazine's 1,384,674 editors are now sharing tips about how to write an essay that doesn't make them want to roll their M.F.A. diploma into a big old cocaine-and-rat-poison blunt, due to despair. The perfect "Lives" essay is now within your grasp!

Live-streaming? Boring. Live-Tweeting? Laaaame. Live-sketching is where it's at, kids! Christoph Niemann, who draws a fantastic column for The New York Times Magazine, just finished live-sketching the New York City Marathon as he ran it—meaning that he's both a more talented artist than you and in better shape. You can take a look back through his marker—and, for the last couple miles, paint—renditions at his Twitter accounts @AbstractSunday and @AbstractSunday1. Neimann didn't stop to do these drawings (though we bet he slowed down for the hard stuff)—we're told he was practicing for months to get the hang of sketching and running simultaneously. (We've been practicing for years and we can barely run, period, so we're in awe). [NYTM, @AbstractSunday]

Remember when Bill Keller was the strong, silent type? The respected, technocratic editor of America's best newspaper? It seems like such a short time ago. It was!

Gloriously crazy perma-naked thing-a-ma-pout Paz de la Huerta turned a lighthearted interview with the New York Times Magazine into an opportunity to accuse her sister of trying to kill her in utero, and relive the time Elvis Presley's ghost diddled her:

In your Wednesday media column: Bill Keller's debut column, the NYT paywall approaches, NewsBeast shows staffers the new Newsweek, NPR listeners are unbearable, and Jeanne Moos wants a gold watch, goddamn it.

In your trampled Tuesday media column: rumors of blog consolidation at AOL, Darell Issa's spokesman canned for leaking to the NYT, Dan Abrams is a proud television journalist, the new NYT Magazine considered, and fairness is dead.

Hugo Lindgren, the new editor of the New York Times Magazine, spent a decade working under New York magazine editor Adam Moss before getting his big break. It makes sense, then, that Lindgren's great ambition is to crush Adam Moss.

In your paltry Tuesday media column: Fox News wants the Latino eyeball, the Brits unite against Rupert Murdoch, Hoda Kotb has a book, the NYT Magazine steals from Oprah, and how to find HuffPo, on the internet.

John Koblin reports this morning that after months of searching, the New York Times Magazine has finally picked a new editor to succeed Gerald Marzorati. [Update: NYT staff memo below].

The New York Times Magazine has been looking for a new editor for months now. So has Newsweek. Tina Brown's been (unsuccessfully) batting down rumors about her own career's future. An update, please!