Print is dead. Or is it? For a handful of well-connected New Yorkers, glossy, start-up magazines are the latest status symbols.

"It's either mad or genius to start a print publication in 2013," said Kevin Sessums, the editor of FourTwoNine, a new gay publication exploring topics such as activism, relationships and fashion. It's also expensive: The first issue of Wherever, a new travel magazine, cost about $20,000 to put out. FourTwoNine wouldn't say how much it's spent, but it "wasn't cheap," a spokeswoman...