Later in his career, Wenner co-founded theRock and Roll Hall of Fame and founded other publications. As a publisher and media figure, he has faced controversy regarding Hall of Fame eligibility favoritism, the breakdown of his relationship withgonzo journalistHunter S. Thompson, and criticism that his magazine's reviews were biased.[5]
His parents divorced in 1958, and he and his sisters, Kate and Merlyn, were sent to boarding schools. He completed his secondary education at theChadwick School in 1963, and went on to attend theUniversity of California, Berkeley. Before dropping out of Berkeley in 1966, Wenner was active in theFree Speech Movement and produced the column "Something's Happening" in the student-run newspaper,The Daily Californian.[8] Wenner avoided the military draft by providing a letter to the draft board from a Berkeley doctor that diagnosed him with "serious personality disorder...with its concomitant history of psychiatric treatment, suicide ideation, homosexual and excessive heterosexual promiscuity, and heavy use of illegal drugs".[6]: 68
With the help of his mentor,San Francisco Chronicle jazz criticRalph J. Gleason, Wenner landed a job atRamparts, a high-circulationmuckraker, where Gleason was a contributing editor and Wenner worked on the magazine's spinoff newspaper.[9]
In 1967, Wenner foundedRolling Stone magazine inSan Francisco.[10] To get the magazine started, Wenner borrowed US$7,500 (equivalent to $70,726 in 2024) from family members and from the family of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim.[4]
In 1977,Rolling Stone shifted its base of operations fromSan Francisco toNew York City.[12]The magazine's circulation dipped briefly in the late 1970s and early 1980s asRolling Stone responded slowly in covering the emergence ofpunk rock and again in the 1990s, when it lost ground toSpin andBlender in coverage ofhip hop. Wenner hired formerFHM editor Ed Needham, who was then replaced by Will Dana, to turn his flagship magazine around, and by 2006,Rolling Stone's circulation was at an all-time high of 1.5 million copies sold every two weeks. In May 2006,Rolling Stone published its 1,000th edition with a holographic, 3-D cover modeled onThe Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Bandalbum cover.[13]
Wenner has been involved in the conducting and writing of many of the magazine'sRolling Stone Interviews. His interview subjects have includedBill Clinton,Al Gore,John Kerry, andBarack Obama for the magazine during their election campaigns and in November 2005 had an interview withU2 rock starBono, which focused on music and politics.[14] Wenner's interview with Bono received aNational Magazine Award nomination.
Rolling Stone and Wenner are chronicled in three books,Gone Crazy and Back Again by Robert Sam Anson,Rolling Stone: The Uncensored History by Robert Draper, andSticky Fingers:The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine by Joe Hagan. Robin Green's memoirThe Only Girl covers the time she worked atRolling Stone.[15]
Wenner founded the magazineOutside in 1977; whereWilliam Randolph Hearst III andJack Ford both worked before Wenner sold it a year later. He also briefly managed the magazineLook and, in 1993, started the magazineFamily Life. In 1985, he bought a share inUs Weekly, followed by a joint purchase of the magazine withThe Walt Disney Company the following year. The magazine made the transition from a monthly to a weekly in 2000.[16] In August 2006, Wenner bought out Disney's share to consolidate 100% ownership.[17]
From 2004 to 2006, Wenner contributed approximately US$63,000 (equivalent to $98,265 in 2024) toDemocratic candidates and liberal organizations.[18]
In September 2016,Advertising Age reported that Wenner was in the process of selling a 49% stake inRolling Stone to Singaporean companyBandLab Technologies. The new investor would have no direct involvement in the editorial content of the magazine.[19] In October 2016, Wenner started publishingGlixel, avideo games-based website.[20]
In September 2017, Wenner Media announced that the remaining 51% ofRolling Stone was up for sale.[21] That share was bought byPenske Media Corporation, who later acquired the remaining stake from BandLab.[22]
Hunter S. Thompson was to provideRolling Stone coverage for the1976 presidential campaign that would appear in a book published by the magazine. Reportedly, as Thompson was waiting for a $75,000 advance check to arrive, he learned that Wenner had canceled the assignment without telling him.
Wenner then asked Thompson to travel toVietnam to report on what turned out to be the final moments of theVietnam War. Thompson accepted and arrived with the country in chaos, just as the United States was preparing to evacuate and other journalists were scrambling to find transportation out of the region. Thompson's story about the fall ofSaigon would not be published inRolling Stone until ten years later. Thompson contributed far less frequently to the publication in later years.[24]
In 1996, Wenner fired rock criticJim DeRogatis after DeRogatis delivered a negative review for an album by the then-popular bandHootie and the Blowfish. Wenner pulled DeRogatis' review from the magazine. Asked by theNew York Observer if Wenner was a fan of Hootie and the Blowfish, DeRogatis responded that Wenner "is a fan of any band that sells eight million records." Wenner fired DeRogatis the next day.[25]
In June 2017, Wenner cut ties with Joe Hagan, the biographer he commissioned to write his biography,Sticky Fingers, calling the book Hagan produced "deeply flawed and tawdry, rather than substantial".[1][26] Hagan had been working closely with Wenner on the book since 2013, andSticky Fingers was released in October 2017.[27][28][29][30]
In September 2023, Wenner was interviewed byDavid Marchese ofThe New York Times' about his bookThe Masters: Conversations with Dylan, Lennon, Jagger, Townshend, Garcia, Bono, and Springsteen and its basis of "seven white guys." Wenner was asked about the book's introduction in which he claimed that black and female artists were "not in his zeitgeist." In response, Wenner said of female artists that 'none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level," to be included in his list of masterful musicians. Of black artistsMarvin Gaye andCurtis Mayfield, he said "they just didn’t articulate at that level".[31] In response, he was removed from the board of theRock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation the day after the interview was published.[32] His comments were widely criticized.[33] He issued an apology statement through his publisher, Little, Brown and Company, on September 18, 2023.[34]
In the summer of 1967, afterRolling Stone was founded, Wenner and Jane Schindelheim were married in a smallJewish ceremony.[35] Wenner and his wife separated in 1995, though Jane Wenner still remains a vice president of Wenner Media. She and Wenner have three sons. One of them, Edward Augustus (Gus), was made head of Wenner Media's digital operations in 2014.[36]
Since 1995, Wenner's domestic partner has been Matt Nye, a fashion designer. Wenner and Nye have three children born viasurrogate mothers.[37][38]
Working with a small group of record company heads and music industry professionals, Wenner co-founded theRock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation in 1983.
Wenner made a guest "appearance" in the Marvel ComicDaredevil issue 100 in 1973, in which he interviewsthe superhero, who is thereby motivated to remember his origins (which he shares with the readers of the comic, but not with Wenner.)
In 1985, Wenner had aRolling Stone cover photograph ofDon Johnson digitally edited to remove the handgun and holster from theMiami Vice star because of Wenner's opposition to handguns.[40]
Amy Ray lambasted Wenner as "Rolling Stone's most fearless leader" in her song "Lucystoners" from her 2001 solo debut,Stag, accusing him of discriminating against women artists in favor of a "boys' club of rock."[42]
In the fall of 2007, Wenner published an oral biography ofHunter S. Thompson titledGonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson. Co-written with Corey Seymour, this work traces the life of Thompson as told through the stories of those closest to him.[43]
In March 2014, it was announced that the publisherKnopf had acquiredSticky Fingers:The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine by journalist Joe Hagan for a seven-figure price.[44] It was published in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary ofRolling Stone.
