Editor’s note: Journalists, making New York government better

We all have our journalistic heroes. I grew up loving Rick Reilly’s back-page column in Sports Illustrated, then discovered that Steve Rushin was even better. A book by Al Franken – before his foray as a U.S. senator – opened my eyes to how fun writing about politics could be. NPR’s Steve Inskeep delivered the news in the morning,  while Tom Brokaw was the most trusted voice at night on NBC.

Once I moved to New York, I started devouring local politics coverage online. I read the Observer for politics, got neighborhood news from DNAinfo and deep policy dives from Gotham Gazette.

And The New York Times’ Michael Powell was my Virgil as I descended into City Hell. His “Gotham” column was essential reading over the latter years of Mike Bloomberg and the rise of Bill de Blasio.

But it was City & State that grabbed me the most. A whole magazine devoted to the world of New York politics. Nobody was doing it like them. And to this day, nobody is doing it like us.

The outlets I once read are either gone, or scarcely cover local politics, but City & State endures. Twenty years after our founding, we’re still covering New York politics, policy and personalities. And I still wake up with First Read, a habit I adopted nearly 15 years ago.

In this difficult news industry, we are proud of that consistency, while still delivering something new every single day. We are, after all, the news.

So after growing up with Newsweek and Rolling Stone, I now get to work with my favorite journalists at a New York magazine of our own, one that makes New York government better. We keep the political community informed and connected, and those in power know that City & State – and our colleagues in journalism – is watching, listening and reporting to hold them accountable.

So in this issue, we’re looking back at the biggest names we’ve covered over the past two decades, and recognizing them in different ways. And we’re looking forward, to another 20 years and beyond.