Is magazine fiction published in the New Yorker, Esquire, Atlantic, Harper's ect great, average, or awful?

It's excellent, among the best short fiction being published--and the competition faced by those who submit reflects that. Each publication turns down first-rate work. All are very tough markets to break into.

Have you asked about these markets recently, maybe yesterday? I looked them up in the most recent Writer's Market I have (2008) and one of them, I forget which, receives 4,000 submissions a *month*. None lists what they pay. By the time I returned to the question, other answers were up so I didn't respond.

From what I understand, stuff published in the New Yorker is pretty prestigious. I'd think that would hold for the rest of those magazines, as well. Not that I have experience with publication... :(

graverageful