New York Woman was a magazine that blended features on fashion and the arts, literary and humorous essays, and consumer-oriented services pieces such as reviews of restaurants, shops, or films. Its target audience was intelligent women living in the New York Metropolitan area

New York metropolitan area

The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...

. It was launched as a bimonthly by the Esquire Magazine Group Inc. in 1987. Legendary mergers-and-acquisitions specialist Bruce Wasserstein

Bruce Wasserstein

Bruce Jay Wasserstein was an American investment banker and businessman. He was a graduate of the McBurney School, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, and spent a year at Cambridge University...

 of Wasserstein Perella reportedly brokering the magazines's sale to American Express Publishing Corporation, publisher of Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is put out by American Express Publishing Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Express Company led by...

 and Food & Wine

Food & Wine

Food & Wine is a monthly magazine published by American Express Publishing. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York...

.

New York Woman's founding publisher was Julie Lewit-Nirenberg, who was later founding publisher of Mirabella

Mirabella

Mirabella was a women's magazine published from 1989 to 2000. It was created by and named for Grace Mirabella, a former Vogue editor in chief....

, often referred to as a smart woman's fashion magazine. Later she served as a director of special projects at Conde-Nast

Condé Nast Publications

Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, is a magazine publisher. In the U.S., it produces 18 consumer magazines, including Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, as well as four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps...

.

The magazine's founding editor was Betsy Carter (who went on to work for O, the Oprah Magazine

O, The Oprah Magazine

O: The Oprah Magazine, sometimes simply abbreviated to O, is a monthly magazine founded by Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Corporation.-Overview:...

, Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...

's magazine).

The French graphic designer Fabien Baron

Fabien Baron

Fabien Baron is a French art director. He is editorial director of Interview magazine.-Life and career :In 1982, Baron came to New York with the idea of staying for six months....

 used his creative director position at the magazine as an opportunity to further develop relationships with important clients in the fashion business such as Barneys and Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein

Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....

. After leaving New York Woman, Baron continued to earn accolades for his fashion-oriented work in advertising and for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar

Harper's Bazaar

Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...

.

Writers included playwright Wendy Wasserstein

Wendy Wasserstein

Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...

, the Andy Warhol superstar Viva, sociologist Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich

-Early life:Ehrenreich was born Barbara Alexander to Isabelle Oxley and Ben Howes Alexander in Butte, Montana, which she describes as then being "a bustling, brawling, blue collar mining town."...

, comedy writer Merrill Markoe

Merrill Markoe

Merrill Markoe is an author, an Emmy Award-winning television writer and a sometime standup comedienne.-Career:Markoe attended the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a B.A. in Art in 1970 and an M.A. in 1972...

 and Maureen Orth

Maureen Orth

Maureen Ann Orth is an American journalist who largely covers stories pertaining to pop culture.-Education and early career:Orth attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1964...

, who later wrote for Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair (magazine)

Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...

Magazine. The magazine is now defunct.