Not long ago, I asked Walter Isaacson, the former Time managing editor, how he would reverse the company’s slide. �It has to find a mission,� he said. �That mission is the social, mobile, and journalistic common ground in an era in which information has become balkanized. It’s about using social media, mobile, and digital to say, �There’s a place you can find common ground and common sense.’ � Other longtime editors worry the clock may have run out. �What the hell do you do?� says Okrent. �Corning was once a glassmaking company that didn’t see much future in making glass, so it became a fiber-optic-cable producer, and I don’t see Time Inc. getting into fiber-optics. As a magazine company, the future looks beyond grim.�

In our conversation, Ripp is less fatalistic. He finds, for instance, the concern about Time Inc.’s debt load overblown: Wall Street would have penalized the company, he argues, if it had enough cash on hand to �dump $500 million on some silly internet thing that doesn’t make any money.� Still, he’s honest about the stakes. �Amazon can invest in helicopters that can deliver your packages and not have to earn a nickel. I do,� he says, with a flash of frustration. �You know the BuzzFeeds and Voxes are valued on the number of buzzes they get. Who gives a damn what that is? We have to make tough decisions, because what’s the alternative? Let it all die? The reality is, magazines as a print business will ultimately die. If we don’t transform this company, someone else will come in and do it.�

As Ripp and I talk, the topic turns to Luce, and I ask him how much he thinks about the company’s founder. The answer is: not much. �Some people say to me, �You know, Henry Luce would not have done that.’ And I say, �You know the great part about Henry Luce? He didn’t have to worry about what Henry Luce would have done. He wasn’t held to his past.’ � With a stock price to worry about and debt payments to make, Ripp is too focused on the present. �If we can’t get that right,� he says, �then we’re screwed anyway.�

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Gabriel Sherman
• Table of Contents: Aug 25, 2014 issue of New York | Subscribe!