Who

Jim Nelson is the tight-suited, skinny-tied editor-in-chief of GQ.

Backstory

The Maryland native started out as a news producer at CNN in Washington before abandoning journalism and moving to LA to pursue a career in television comedy writing. When that didn't pan out, Nelson returned to New York in the early '90s and joined Harper's as an unpaid intern at the age of 30. Harper's soon offered him a full-time job and he remained at the mag until 1997, when he moved to GQ to serve as a senior editor. In 2002 he was bumped up to executive editor; a year later he was picked by then-Condé Nast editorial director James Truman to succeed GQ's legendary editor Art Cooper. (Rumor has it Nelson only got the nod after editor Dave Zinczenko passed.) Sadly, Cooper died during the transition period: In June of 2003 he collapsed of a heart attack while dining with Zinczenko at the Four Seasons. Nelson, who works closely with Peter King Hunsinger, GQ's publisher, reports to Tom Wallace.

Of note

Under Cooper, GQ was a more traditional title that celebrated the sort of classic men's style last popular a generation ago. Nelson quickly set about creating a more youthful and informal image: He shortened the articles (because obviously there's nothing young people hate more than a 3,000-word feature) and ladded things up by putting people like Johnny Knoxville and Jay-Z on the cover. And much like competitor David Granger of Esquire, he turned to the failsafe formula of boobies, gracing the pages with younger (and more scantily-clad) women. It's largely worked. Circulation and ad pages are up—even as the newsstand price has increased—and the magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary in October 2007.

Personal

Nelson lives with his boyfriend, a dancer and choreographer named John Mario Sevilla who currently works for the New York City Ballet. They live on West 23rd Street. As with fellow Condé editors like Graydon Carter and Deborah Needleman, Nelson's corporate bosses helped him with the apartment purchase.

True story

When GQ's rival Details put together a chart called "Gay or Men's magazine editor?" the editor of Details, Dan Peres, used a look-alike of Nelson as its model.