With the cover story for its 2018 TV issue, New York offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how Netflix operates, for which Vulture west coast editor Josef Adalian interviewed more than a dozen key executives and staffers, and observed multiple internal meetings and presentations. Netflix is hiring everybody in and out of Hollywood to make more TV shows than any network ever has, and the streaming service is only getting started. “If you think about the addressable market for Netflix as being paid TV households, it’s relatively small,” says Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer. “Everyone with a phone has a screen and access to the internet. That is our addressable market. The world’s taste, and the world’s time, is what we’re after.”
For the cover, New York assembled a group of Netflix’s star collaborators: Ryan Murphy, Spike Lee, Laverne Cox, Alison Brie, Jane Fonda, Robin Wright, and Jason Bateman, to be photographed by staff photographer Bobby Doherty. The stars were asked to wear their version of black tie, according to photography director Jody Quon, “and it was delightful to see their personal takes on the brief. Everyone embraced the idea of getting cozy together.”