[4] Initially, the magazine featured a marquee roster of the era's best-known new journalists, including Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, Jack Newfield, Mike Royko, and Dick Schaap.

However, as the magazine's ad revenues lagged, contributions from the big names soon dried up, and under the editorship of Jonathan Larsen, New Times shifted to a more investigative journalistic approach, publishing articles on topics such as the CIA,[5][6] congressional committees, political spying, political activism, the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer,[7] the cult or system of psychological training est[8] and the JFK assassination "cover up" thesis.

Typical of the magazine's later direction, one issue featured a cover depicting Bozo the Clown behind the Presidential podium, a broad comment on the mistakes and misadventures of then-U.S. President Gerald Ford.

Another issue saluted the 10 Dumbest Congressmen, judging Iowa's newly elected Republican Senator Charles Grassley as the so-called King of Dumb.

[4][14] Hirsch then launched The Runner magazine,[15] one of the first of a new era of specialty "active lifestyle" monthlies in 1979, after initially creating it as the New York City Marathon's official program in 1977.