Oh, grow up

The longer features are quite involved. Some of the best ones (in the June/July issue, a piece on vaccine reform; in the inaugural issue, a profile of a mother who became a gun-control activist when her son was shot) would stand up in any good, general-interest magazine. Best of all, the tried-and-true, timeless dilemmas of parenting journalism are actually made fresh here. Clifton Leaf's "When Good Friends Make Lousy Parents" (April/May) is good and dishy -- it even uses people's real names! -- and George Kalogerakis' account (June/July) of taking a course in how to be a better parent is honest and funny in a way such stories seldom are.

Offspring's look stands out from that of its competitors (the larger format helps -- though it might hurt them in some magazine stands). Art director Jill Armus, late of Saveur, has crafted a design that is elegant -- double-truck intros to features; amusing illustrations contrasted with stark black-and-white photos -- without being precious. (OK, some of the fashion is borderline -- but who the hell wants children's fashion, anyway?)

With its writerly writing and eye-catching images, Offspring actually reminds me a little of Parenting -- in the late '80s. Before the magazine was fully acquired by Time. Under initial editors Owen Edwards and David Markus, Parenting aimed for the high end. (I worked as a writer and editor there under Markus.) Veronique Vienne's design was distinctive, if a bit remote; the stories, at best, were counterintuitive -- and at worst, self-absorbed. (In an early first-person piece, a writer recalled taking his young son to the American Museum of Natural History, being overcome with memories of his own father taking him to the museum when he was little -- and then looking up to realize he'd lost track of his kid.)

Since then, the magazine has followed a more traditional arc. After being bought outright by Time, Parenting moved from San Francisco to New York, abandoned the narrative for the info-bit style -- and, under current editor Janet Chan, moved near the head of the circulation class. Is Offspring doomed to follow the same course?

"When people say others have tried this in an earlier decade, I think they might have been ahead of their time," says Swartz. "One of the dangers we're very mindful of here -- particularly with parents of younger children -- is that it's hard for them to make the time to read. We've got to make this as engaging as possible. And as provocative as possible, but what's more important than your kids?"

Most parenting magazines have concluded that parents don't have time to read (while most parents have concluded that they don't have time to think). Offspring may yet make some concessions to the conventional wisdom of the genre (there are, in fact, numbers on the cover of the June/July issue), but without sacrificing gray matter. Right now, they're out to prove a magazine for parents can be smart without being stuffy.

"We are definitely a service magazine," Swartz insists. "This is not the Atlantic of parenting."

Well, that's encouraging. You don't want to put your readers to sleep. But if they could just find a way to knock these kids out ...

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