2 days ago
Uproar as Anna Wintour appoints her daughter's nepo-baby best friend to run Vanity Fair
Anna Wintour has appointed her daughter's close pal to run Vanity Fair, despite reports that he's despised by staff at the magazine's publisher.
Mark Guiducci, 36, was tapped by Wintour on Tuesday to lead the Conde Nast-owned glossy after a high-profile search for the publication's next leader.
Guiducci has worked at both Vanity Fair and Vogue, where Wintour is editor-in-chief, and is a friend of her 37-year-old daughter, Bee Shaffer, sources told Showbiz 411.
'He's the most disliked person in the Conde Nast building,' a source told the publication Tuesday, hours after the news of Guiducci's hiring broke.
'Staffers went to Anna begging her not to hire him,' an insider added
The hesitance stems from the Princeton grad's inexperience, as well as a poor reputation earned during his time at Vogue, Showbiz 411 reported.
The search for a new leader launched in April, when Vanity Fair's former editor-in-chief, Radhika Jones, resigned after seven years. She assumed the role from longtime editor Graydon Carter, who held the job for 25 years.
At the time, Wintour told staff that Jones would help with the transition 'as we start the search for a new editor.' Now tasked with filling that void is Guiducci, who started his post-college career in 2010 at Vanity Fair as an assistant.
In 2017, he was named editor-in-chief the art publication GARAGE Magazine, owned by VICE Media. It went out of print four years ago, a year after Guiducci left in 2020.
That same year, he took on the role of creative editorial director Vogue and helped launch Vogue World, an annual fashion and cultural show.
He's now tasked with filling the void left by Jones, after she oversaw years of declining revenue.
Guiducci will be Vanity Fair's first 'global editorial director' rather than the editor-in-chief title held by his predecessors, including the legendary Tina Brown.
Wintour's search was advised by longtime New Yorker editor David Remnick.
Figures like Carter have since expressed faith in Guiducci as a successor, despite working with him many years ago.
'Having worked with Mark, I know that he has so many of the skills necessary for the job at hand - and many that I did not have,' the iconic editor told Breaker. 'He's the perfect editor for the new Vanity Fair.'
'Congrats to Mark Guiducci, the new editor of Vanity Fair,' Brown separately tweeted. 'He's a fabulous, fresh appointment with bags of flair and fun ideas.'
In a statement to the New York Times, the 75-year-old Wintour sang a similar tune, describing how great editors 'inspire their colleagues to move with speed, dexterity and thrilling derring-do.'
'That's the magic of Mark,' she said. 'An energetic and creative editor at the center of his generation and a leader under whom Vanity Fair will grow in ways I can foresee and, no doubt, many ways I can't.'
Guiducci also expressed excitement at taking on the job.
'We're going to have fun,' Guiducci said of his plans for the magazine. 'I think that's something we're going to need in our culture right now'
'There are all these old-school tools that can be used in new ways,' Guiducci told the Times.
'Cover stars, long lead ambitious investigations, sophisticated visuals - those are all things you can't do on Substack. The difference today is we create them for and publish them on modern platforms.'
His friendship with Wintour's only daughter has spanned years.
The two have been photographed together frequently, often at high-profile parties.
'Beyond proud,' Shaffer wrote on Instagram Tuesday in a story celebrating Guiducci's appointment.
'We're going to have fun,' he told the Times separately, when asked about his plans for the magazine. 'I think that's something we're going to need in our culture right now.'
