Diane Straus, Publisher of Liberal Policy Magazines, Dies at 66
Ms. Straus’s mother, the former Ellen Sulzberger, helped run WMCA
and founded Call for Action, the nation’s first telephone help line for individuals trying to solve problems they had encountered with government officials, corporations and landlords.
Ms. Straus had been president and publisher of The American Prospect when she joined
Washington Monthly in 2008, nearly 40 years after it was founded by Charles Peters.
After college, she held editing jobs at New York magazine
and The Village Voice before being named publisher of one of her family’s newspapers, The Cranford Citizen and Chronicle in New Jersey.
At the time, the magazine was in danger of going out of business: Markos Kounalakis, Ms. Straus’s
immediate predecessor, had provided the magazine with financing but had moved on.
“A decade ago, foundations didn’t want to interfere in the market,” Ms. Straus once told The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Diane Straus, the publisher of two liberal policy magazines who was also a championship
platform tennis player, died on Wednesday at her home in Washington.
“Diane didn’t want to pitch ideology,” Mr. Leonard said in a telephone interview.