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Forbes
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Michael Grynbaum On Condé Nast, Anna Wintour And What ‘Vogue' Will Do ‘Without Its Most Valuable Asset'
Anna Wintour, Met Gala Chair, attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating "Superfine: Tailoring Black ... More Style" at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by) Condé Nast has had a big spring into summer. On March 25, former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter released his memoir When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, which took readers through his 25 years at the helm of the magazine. On April 3, just over one week later, the editor-in-chief that succeeded Carter, Radhika Jones, announced that she would be stepping down from the top of the masthead at Vanity Fair. Then, on June 10, Mark Guiducci was named to the top job at Vanity Fair—though with a title different than editor-in-chief: global editorial director, which will see him lead not just the U.S. arm of the publication, but, as his title suggests, editions across the world. But that's not all. After 37 years as editor-in-chief at Vogue. Anna Wintour announced on June 26 that she was leaving that role, though she will still continue as Vogue's global editorial director as well as chief content officer for Condé Nast. Whew. All of this, and on July 15, New York Times media correspondent Michael Grynbaum's buzzy book Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America hit shelves—the timing of which couldn't have been better planned out if Grynbaum had orchestrated it himself. Naturally, when I speak to Grynbaum just under one week after his book launched into the ether, the topic of Wintour comes up. Anna Wintour attends The Gordon Parks Foundation Awards Dinner and Auction 2025 at Cipriani 42nd ... More Street on May 20, 2025 in New York City. (Photo byfor Gordon Parks Foundation) 'The challenge for whoever Anna Wintour's successor will be is to imprint the idea of Vogue on a younger generation,' he tells me over the phone. Calling this moment in Condé Nast's history 'transitional and transformative' for the company, Grynbaum identifies Wintour as 'the most important individual at Condé Nast today—and that's not only because of her power in the fashion industry, but also her relationships with the luxury advertisers who provide a significant of the revenue for Condé Nast.' Models Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington in sequined t-shirts and silk white pants by Ralph ... More Lauren on the cover of 'Vogue,' February 1992. (Arthur Elgort/Conde Nast via Getty Images) Unquestionably, Wintour is a tough act to follow. Beyond being an editor-in-chief, Wintour—famous for her signature bob and her famous sunglasses—has become a bona fide celebrity herself. Grynbaum tells me that it'll be difficult for any editor—or head of editorial content, as her successor will be known—to live up to her level of celebrity status. This means that when she does depart, 'Vogue will have to find ways to maintain all those important relationships in the fashion world without its most valuable asset,' Grynbum says. 'On the other hand, I think some people inside Condé Nast are excited at the idea of a younger editor taking the reins who may have a different idea of the magazine than Anna has,' he adds. 'And if you look at the history of Condé Nast editors who once seemed irreplaceable, [they] were replaced and their successors reimagined the brand for a new era. So I think there are a lot of very young, talented magazine editors out there. The question is, can Condé Nast provide them with the monetary resources to create a publication that is as appealing and as stylish and glamorous as it was during its heyday?' That—along with Wintour's successor—is still to be determined. Graydon Carter and Anna Wintour during Burberry's Flagship Store Opening Party Hosted by 'Vanity ... More Fair' at Burberry's Flagship Store in New York City. (Photo by KMazur/WireImage) 'The spending was the point' Let's talk about Condé Nast's heyday, shall we? Grynbaum does this with aplomb in Empire of the Elite, where he recounts when the company had enough money to FedEx writers' suitcases ahead of them on business trips that they didn't have to be troubled with carrying it on the airplane. Or the editors who had their assistants fly to Paris ahead of time to decorate their hotel suites so that, when they arrived, it would all be ordered to their liking. Photoshoots cost half a million dollars in catering and travel and set design, 'almost like a short film just to create this kind of moment of surprise and delight for the reader,' Grynbaum says. Ahhh, those were the days. (Spoiler alert: those days are over.) The stories of opulence are too many to count. A standout one for Grynbaum—one he says 'tells you a lot about how the place operated'—was when, in the late 1990s, the editor-in-chief of WIRED, a new Condé Nast property at the time, flew from San Francisco to New York City to meet with her new bosses. She booked herself into a modest hotel in the city, 'and when her bosses found out where she was staying, she was scolded,' Grynbaum says. 'They said, 'You aren't spending enough.'' They demanded she move into the St. Regis on Fifth Avenue—probably three or four times the price, Grynbaum estimates. 'They said that when you meet with advertisers, they want you to be staying at the St. Regis,' he says. 'And I think that story tells you about how perception was so important to Condé Nast in that it was actually worth it to spend more on hotels because of the image that projected.' Tina Brown attends her publication party for 'The Vanity Fair Diaries' at Michael's on November 8, ... More 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) Condé Nast's business model was exclusivity—to 'create this desirable world of luxury and sophistication and charge readers and advertisers to be a part of it,' Grynbaum explains. The world inside Condé Nast's offerings—not just Vogue and Vanity Fair but also The New Yorker, Allure, Glamour, Architectural Digest, and so on—was an ideal, a way of life to aspire to. 'And it was a tremendously successful business model for many years, because this was how high-end advertisers could access an upper class audience or an audience that I call the upper class, or those who wish to join it,' Grynbaum says. Condé Nast dealt in social aspiration. It created a vision of the good life. It was materialistic. It elevated celebrities to mythical figure status. Magazines like those owned by Condé Nast were—and still are—also platforms for first-in-class writers, photographers and designers. 'For decades, one company in Manhattan told the world what to buy, what to value, what to wear, what to eat, even what to think,' Grynbaum writes in the book. In his words, the company wanted to have a 'foothold in every sphere and phase of human life'; he adds, 'to be featured by Condé Nast meant you had arrived.' He also adds in the book that at its peak, the company was 'simultaneously dysfunctional and successful.' 'The spending was the point,' Grynbaum says of the bygone days of FedExing one's suitcase ahead of themselves. 'It was creating this idea of the company as a hugely glamorous place to work with glamorous people doing glamorous things that actually made readers so eager to subscribe and be a part of its world.' It took a lot to even make it through the door, as Grynbaum outlines—and it got no less cutthroat once you were hired. Staying in the good graces of the top brass was a challenge; as Grynbaum put it, while there were certainly perks to being an editor-in-chief in the heyday, those at the top of the masthead 'remained anxious, even at the top of the totem poll.' Grynbaum interviewed more than 200 people for the book, including several editors-in-chief. 'They had all the perks—a free mortgage on their apartment, a free car, a wardrobe allowance,' he says. 'But they often didn't have time to enjoy it because they were working so hard.' Anna Wintour and S.I. Newhouse share a laugh as they attend a party for Bob Colacello's book 'Holy ... More Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up' in New York City on August 8, 1990. (Photo by) 'And so, even at the top of the hierarchy at this company, I think there was a lot of fear in some cases about performing to the level that was expected,' Grynbaum continues. 'It was really run like a medieval court, where all the courtiers were seeking the favor of the king.' The king in question? Samuel Irving 'S.I.' Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast during these years. Every year for Christmas, Newhouse would hold a holiday lunch for his editors and executives in the old Four Seasons restaurant. The seating chart every year was scrutinized to see which editors were seated in closest proximity to him. 'It was taken as a sign of how well they were performing,' Grynbaum says. 'So, in some cases, these were the only times that these towering editors interacted in a lot of ways. Vogue, for instance, competed against Vanity Fair for the same readers, for the same advertisers. And there are stories about the sort of tricks that Condé magazines would pull on one another, either badmouthing each other to a clothing company that might advertise or signing exclusive contracts with photographers so that they wouldn't go work for the in-house competition.' Newhouse egged it on. 'He relished the idea of pitting editors against one another and felt that it brought out their best performance,' Grynbaum tells me. 'And so that was the management style that Condé Nast followed for many years.' If Newhouse is the king of yesteryear, Wintour is the modern era's undisputed queen. But what happens when the queen suddenly abdicates the throne? Anna Wintour, Met Gala Chair, attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating "Superfine: Tailoring Black ... More Style" at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue) 'I don't think it ever really left' 'In many ways, Anna is the monarch of Condé Nast today,' Grynbaum says, noting her oversight over every title in the pantheon except for, interestingly, The New Yorker. She helps titles choose editors; she helps craft their brand strategy. Though it's no secret that magazines are struggling—to hear Grynbaum put it, even the crème de la crème Condé Nast is 'at best breaking, even, perhaps, losing money'—Wintour has influence unlike any other in the business. Whoever comes behind her will have to build that capital, both monetarily and socially. And, because of where the industry sits, the deck is not stacked in their favor. 'If you look at a copy of Vogue today, it looks like a pamphlet compared to the phone book it used to be, with 900 pages of advertising,' Grynbaum says. 'But I do think the choices that Vogue makes still resonate.' Take, for example, when Vogue put Lauren Sánchez on its cover on the occasion of her wedding to Jeff Bezos last month. 'It caused a stir,' Grynbaum says. It sparked conversation. It got people talking. People loved it, people hated it—but people were paying attention. Lauren Sanchez leaves the Aman Hotel on her wedding day to Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos in Venice on ... More June 27, 2025. (Photo by Stefano Rellandini / AFP) (Photo by STEFANO RELLANDINI/AFP via Getty Images) 'It was striking to me that Vogue was again at the center of a cultural conversation,' he adds. 'And I don't think it ever really left.' Though Grynbaum writes in Empire of the Elite that a powerhouse like Condé Nast 'never will happen again,' there's still much riding on the appointment of Wintour's successor. Their biggest challenge? Appealing to the younger generation—the generation who never knew magazines in its heyday. When it comes to relevance, 'I mean, I think for a generation over 40, it very much does still matter,' Grynbaum says. 'It's not a coincidence that Lauren Sánchez [who is 55 years old] agreed to provide Vogue an exclusive photoshoot, but would Lauren Sánchez's kids feel the same way?' 'I do think there is now a younger generation of readers who aren't reading print magazines at all and are less impressed by the old media powerhouses,' he continues. 'So I think the challenge of Condé Nast moving forward is to educate younger readers that their brands still represent discernment and good taste.' Tina Brown and Anna Wintour on November 15, 1989 in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron ... More Galella Collection via Getty Images) In writing Empire of the Elite, Grynbaum seeks to show that while Condé Nast 'was not by any means a perfect place'—it mattered, and still matters, in terms of shaping culture. 'I do think that curation and discernment are still important for us to make sense of our culture,' he tells me. 'And in a time where the internet is so chaotic, the benefit of curation, I think, is greater than ever.' In reading his book—which truly couldn't have come out at a more interesting moment for Condé Nast—Grynbaum hopes 'readers will question some of their own assumptions about the way that cultural influence works—and maybe also enjoy reading about a world that may not come around again.'
Fast Company
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
A new generation of magazines is getting kids to put down their phones
On a recent Saturday afternoon, I noticed an unusual silence from my 9-year-old's room. I was surprised to find she wasn't taking advantage of her allotted two hours of screen time; instead, she was curled up on her chair reading a magazine. Three decades ago, when I was her age, this wouldn't have seemed strange. Starting in the late 1800s, the United States had a thriving culture around children's magazines. Young children would get Jack and Jill, Turtle, or Sesame Street Magazine in the mail; teens would graduate to Sassy, Tiger Bea t, or Teen People. But as the internet emerged—with blogs, streaming sites, and online games competing for young people's attention—magazines lost their luster. Although there are a few legacy magazines that still publish, like Sports Illustrated Kids, National Geographic Kids, and Highlights, most have gone out of business over the past 15 years. In a strange twist, however, kids' magazines are making a comeback thanks to a new flock of startups. My daughter, for instance, was pouring over Anyway, a magazine for 9- to 14-year-olds that debuted in 2023. Jen Swetzoff and Keeley McNamara launched the magazine with a Kickstarter campaign to see whether there was an appetite for a publication that deals with the issues tweens are facing, from understanding body hair to developing personal style. The founders reached their funding goal within days, and hundreds of families now receive their quarterly magazine. Anyway is part of a broader wave of new publications that began nearly a decade ago with Kazoo, a quarterly magazine for 5- to 12-year-old girls that features contributors like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Jane Goodall, and has won a slate of awards. There's Honest History, which makes history engaging to elementary school kids. And Illustoria, a kid's magazine for children up to 14, meant to encourage creativity and imagination. One of the more recent entries is Spark, a monthly activity magazine for kids between 4 and 8. Subscribe to the Design latest innovations in design brought to you every weekday SIGN UP Privacy Policy | Fast Company Newsletters The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Juicy Chronicle of the Fat Decades at Condé Nast
EMPIRE OF THE ELITE: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, by Michael M. Grynbaum We may be facing a future without magazines, at least glossy ones, and passing into an era of disembodied media entities — an unholy maelstrom of websites, YouTube channels and, worst of all, podcasts. But the golden age of American magazines was very shiny indeed. In 'Empire of the Elite,' Michael M. Grynbaum, a media reporter at The New York Times, has written a lively if elegiac chronicle of Condé Nast, the parent company to Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ and The New Yorker, among several other titles, too many of them now defunct. The book sketches its birth and early decades; its acquisition by the self-made newspaper magnate Samuel I. Newhouse in 1959; the dramas and triumphs of its fat decades under his heir, Si Jr.; and finally the deaths (Allure, Details, Domino, Lucky, Portfolio and Self all shuttered; the younger Newhouse himself gone in 2017 at age 89) and diminishments of this century, including the humanitarian crisis that resulted when the unlimited office supply of Orangina bottles was cut off. A newspaperman I used to work with liked to say that there are two types of media columnists — reporters who get the dish on newsroom gossip and critics who are philosophers of ink and pulp — but you never get the twain in one writer. Grynbaum belongs to the former category. When it comes to hirings and firings and office intrigues, the technical word for this book is juicy. He has all the details he can fit, and he has many of them from inside sources, both on the record and anonymous, even if much of it has been aired over the years in earlier tell-alls, screeds, biographies, diaries and gossip rags. 'Empire of the Elite' is weaker on questions of the company's aesthetics and editorial approaches; here Grynbaum tends to repeat the conventional wisdom, swallow the hype or, in matters of controversy, teach the debate. Grynbaum has given himself the task of mythologizing the mythmakers, where he might have chosen instead to demystify them. His prose style might best be described as 'magaziney.' Here's how he opens his chapter on the longtime editor of Vogue: 'The Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan is dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis. One spring morning in 2014, the high priests of a different era gathered by the temple's sandstone columns to hail another female deity: Anna Wintour.' For all his reporting, the editors and publishers who are his main characters emerge with their auras intact, even reinforced. Another problem is that all the myths are basically the same. An outsider journeys to the big city desperate to become an insider, and then transforms that inner circle into his or her own image by getting hired to run a magazine at Condé Nast. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CNN
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Former Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter: ‘I never used the word career… I'm really lucky to have this job.'
Former Editor of Vanity Fair Graydon Carter tells all in his latest memoir, 'When the Going was Good.' Carter takes readers from his childhood in Canada to the golden-age of magazines in New York, dishing on his decades long feud with Donald Trump and the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar parties.
CNN
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Former Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter: ‘I never used the word career… I'm really lucky to have this job.'
Former Editor of Vanity Fair Graydon Carter tells all in his latest memoir, 'When the Going was Good.' Carter takes readers from his childhood in Canada to the golden-age of magazines in New York, dishing on his decades long feud with Donald Trump and the legendary Vanity Fair Oscar parties.
