[2] [3] On graduation from CCNY in 1958, Kosner joined the New York Post, then a liberal tabloid owned by Dorothy Schiff.
[2][4] He spent five years at the paper, working on night rewrite, as a series writer, and as an assistant city editor.
[5] Over the next fifteen years, Kosner wrote more than a score of cover stories, started a section on urban problems, and held all the top editorial positions on the magazine under Osborn Elliott.
Early in 1980, Rupert Murdoch hired Kosner to edit New York magazine, which he had taken over from founder Clay Felker three years earlier.
[12] Over the next four years, Kosner oversaw the tabloid's coverage of a run of major stories, including the "tied" 2000 Presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, on page one for forty consecutive days, the September 11 attacks and their aftermath, and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
[14][full citation needed] Since 1978, Kosner has been married to Julie Baumgold, a novelist and magazine writer.