“The only reason to be in business is to be great.”

A conversation with David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker.

Interviewer: The role of an editor is much broader today. Is there anything you feel uncomfortable doing, or is there anything you’re doing that you hadn’t expected to enjoy?

D.R.: I enjoy all of it to one degree or another. There are days when you might enjoy it a little less, due to one crisis or another. It is absolutely vital, to me, in a period of technological evolution and sometimes financial stress that I and my colleagues not...