In 1975 Schell and his younger brother Jonathan Schell (who would later write the bestseller The Fate of the Earth, and join "The Nation" and the Nation Institute) became correspondents at "The New Yorker". Schell has also served as a correspondent for the "Atlantic Monthly" and the "New Republic". He has written widely for many other magazine and newspapers, including "The New Yorker", "Time" magazine, "Harper's", "The Nation", "The New York Review of Books", "Wired", "Foreign Affairs", "Newsweek", the "China Quarterly", and the "New York Times", "Washington Post" and "Los Angeles Times".