Behind the Scenes of TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year Issue

We are nearing a century of Person of the Year, the franchise TIME’s editors launched as a make-good at the end of 1927, after realizing they had failed to mark Charles Lindbergh’s history-making transatlantic flight on the cover. It is our privilege to work on a project that has, across those years, become a milestone and, yes, a lightning rod. Like much of what we do at TIME, this issue is an opportunity to be in conversation with history while embracing the future with arms wide open. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

It takes hundreds of people to make Person of the Year possible, from those of us in the newsroom to our colleagues across TIME’s business, including our CEO Jessica Sibley. For the second year in a row, Person of the Year was led by Kelly Conniff, who is entering her 13th year at TIME. Kelly guides the staff through months of debate and assignments until we reach our final destination. She was assisted by many including Lori Fradkin, Lily Rothman, Annabel Gutterman, and D.W. Pine.

The story on Donald Trump was written and reported by Eric Cortellessa, who covers the Republican Party and its leaders for TIME. Massimo Calabresi, Alex Altman, and I joined Eric for the interview with Trump on Nov. 25. Trump has sat with TIME journalists for extensive interviews over the past nine years; the results of those interviews have provided valuable insight for our readers. We publish in TIME today a story on Trump’s year along with a transcript and analysis of Trump’s remarks.

The profile of CEO of the Year Lisa Su was written by Billy Perrigo, reporting from Santa Clara, Calif., on Nov. 6; last year, Billy co-wrote the CEO of the Year profile on ­OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Sean Gregory’s streak of writing or co-writing all of TIME’s ­Athlete of the Year profiles remains unbroken. He interviewed Caitlin Clark in Indianapolis on Nov. 4. Belinda Luscombe, who joined TIME’s original parent company in 1992, ­interviewed Icon of the Year Elton John in New York City and at Woodside, his home in Old Windsor, England, in November.

We are fortunate to work with the best photographers in the world. Donald Trump was photographed by Platon, who has taken more than 20 covers—and last created the cover image for Person of the Year in 2007. Clark was photographed by Cass Bird, a giant of contemporary fashion and art photography. Elton John was photographed by Miles Aldridge, whose father, artist Alan Aldridge, created the cover for John’s 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Su was photographed by Guerin Blask. Their work was photo edited by Katherine Pomerantz, Dilys Ng, and Kara Milstein. Design for this issue was overseen by Rich Morgan and video by Justine Simons.

As TIME has evolved, so too have the many forms in which we present this issue. The night before we closed this magazine, we gathered for our annual “A Year in TIME” event in New York City. Led by Dan Macsai, Cate Matthews, and Jeff Smith, the event featured onstage conversations with Clark and Su and a performance by John. There, we also celebrated the first decade of our Next Generation Leaders program, created in partnership with Rolex.

Finally, a note on the future: this year we are debuting TIME AI, a new initiative led by TIME COO Mark Howard in partnership with Scale AI, with our Person of the Year coverage. We’ve been covering the rise of generative AI across industries in our reporting, and now we are helping TIME’s readers experience our journalism with it. Visit our website to experience TIME’s Person of the Year reporting translated into seven languages, as well as via audio and a new conversation-based interface.