Time To Say Goodbye Equator, a New Magazine for the World with Jonathan Shainin
Mar 13, 2026
Jonathan Shainin, journalist and co-founder of Equator magazine, brings his international reporting and editing background. He discusses why a new global magazine is needed now. He talks about editorial principles that avoid US-centric frames, translation and AI for sourcing work, print versus online strategy, and plans for memberships, events, and long-form first-person journalism.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Learning Journalism In Abu Dhabi
- Jonathan Shainin moved from The New Yorker to work at a startup newspaper in Abu Dhabi from 2007 to 2010 and learned about different modern lives firsthand.
- The paper aimed to be an English-language Al Jazeera, hiring Western talent and revealing how prestige hires shaped new media projects there.
Rejecting End Of History Assumptions
- Equator challenges an Anglophone media habit that treats Europe and the U.S. as the center and assumes other societies should evolve to look like them.
- The team framed pieces around re-examining 1990s modernization and 'end of history' assumptions to shape editorial choices.
Media Bias Comes From Hiring Pipelines
- Tyler emphasizes the sociological source of media blind spots: hiring pipelines produce a narrow class and institutional mindset.
- He argues class diversity matters as much as demographic diversity because it shapes how foreign policy and domestic issues are understood.
