Chloe Malle Named Head of Editorial Content of US Vogue | Page 13 | the Fashion Spot

Chloe Malle Named Head of Editorial Content of US Vogue

Maybe one of Anna’s best interview. It could have been longer.

Vogue having fewer issues make sense but is also a very pragmatic decision.
They should have went with this earlier but maybe it would have been more tricky to do it during Anna’s reign.

They have to split the advertising with digital. And I think YouTube is maybe the more interesting platform for this as the attention of people is less short there.

Chloe will have to face the same issues as her colleagues in others editions. American Vogue is very particular, even in the Vogue eco-system because it’s the biggest and also the one that is very permeable to the « outside world ». And in a way, Anna is totally right when she says that Vogue US cannot have as a leader a pure fashion person.

In Italy or France, people knows that Vogue is elitist. They understand it, expect it to be that way…Even very glamorous. It’s a niche that has to stay that kind of niche to work. ELLE does the other job.

It’s really difficult to shake an institution, even more at a time where everything has been done and the convention broken.

Carine went back to the heydays of VP as an inspiration to her VP: the Francine Crescent years.

For some people, the heydays of Vogue US are the Vreeland or the 90’s Anna years. For me, the 00’s were also great (until 2008).

I hope she will surround herself with new talents who represents the top of the industry and mix generations.
It’s a difficult task nevertheless.
I checked her IG and... go girl, give us nothing! So pedestrian. She clearly has no clue about fashion, which makes her perfect for Vogue. Other examples show this title remains influential only because of its name. The girls pretending to understand fashion aren’t exactly proving our criticism wrong.
I hope we live in a world where nothing about a woman’s life or social circle could actually tell you about her taste or vision when it comes to fashion…

If we go by your POV, some of the most beloved and important fashion editors would have been crucified before taking over.

If one thing, Liz, Francine, Franca, Glenda (in the beginning) or even Joan looked nothing like their magazine.
 
If a woman is appointed to a major job, I don't think less of her if she adopts a "uniform" that frees her to make authoritative or creative decisions.

The expectation that women must look like fashion plates at all times is a just different flavour of the same expectation that women must always busy themselves to look as beautiful as they can, or else they don't deserve to hold a place.

If that workplace is a fashion magazine, is there a degree of hypocrisy if the editor doesn't enjoy using her own appearance to extend the message that the magazine sends out? It depends on how severe the magazine's diktats are.

Anna Wintour was a figurehead who could embody - what was - the limited message of what Vogue represented.

But the pages of Vogue are more diverse these days - how could one person represent everything now seen inside the magazine? It would feel inauthentic for that person to even try. And there isn't the same thirst for authority figures these days anyway.
 
Anna embodies the maxim "dress for the job you want" well, she is like the Darth Vader of fashion: an iconic leader. She commands attention and respect with her appearance.

It is probably unreasonable to expect anyone else to live up to that. But being able to showcase the power of fashion would be nice. (I'm sure she'll grow into it if it's relevant to the position, the times and her goals.)

I assume US Vogue will flourish in the more approachable style though where nothing stands out. Or they won't.
 
I read The Guardian's take last week, and they honed in quite a bit on her personal background. I'm surprised people aren't focusing more on that because I definitely think it was a strong deciding factor for Anna. We all know she has always been obsessed with status and any sort of association with the upper class. This is very likely her preserving Vogue's status as the playground for aristos and high society, which let's be frank, Chloe comes from. Even the images she chose are very post-war socialite.

I didnt think the Dogue concept was very fresh or interesting at all; that sort of thing is more for digital, which is where she excels. But for a print product? We'll soon see whether her 'love for print' will be enough to rise above the ghost of Anna's Vogue.

Via The Guardian

Vogue names Chloe Malle as new head of US edition​

Vogue staffer Malle succeeds Anna Wintour with the title ‘head of editorial content’

Morwenna Ferrier
Tue 2 Sep 2025 13.27 BST

The biggest job in fashion has finally been filled.

Following news that Anna Wintour was stepping back as editor of American Vogue in July, Condé Nast have appointed 39-year-old journalist and Vogue staffer Chloe Malle as head of editorial content at the American fashion magazine. Her role is effective immediately.


“Fashion and media are both evolving at breakneck speed, and I am so thrilled, and awed, to be part of that,” said Malle in a statement. “I also feel incredibly fortunate to still have Anna just down the hall as my mentor.”

One of the most powerful roles in the fashion industry, her appointment marks not just a new chapter for the magazine but for Wintour herself, who will stay on in her role as chief content officer for Condé Nast and global editorial director for the magazine, allowing her to retain control of the magazine, while no longer being involved in the day to day. Wintour was present at the July couture shows and it’s likely that both she and Malle will be present for next week’s New York fashion week, oversee the Met Gala and Vogue World events. But in a first for the most famous magazine in the world, Vogue no longer has an editor-in-chief.


“At a moment of change both within fashion and outside it, Vogue must continue to be both the standard-bearer and the boundary-pushing leader,” said Wintour. “Chloe has proven often that she can find the balance between American Vogue’s long, singular history and its future on the front lines of the new. I am so excited to continue working with her, as her mentor but also as her student, while she leads us and our audiences where we’ve never been before.”

Malle was editor of Vogue.com and co-host of the podcast The Run-Through with Vogue, and is a longtime Wintour insider, having been at the magazine since 2011. Responsible for editor-led newsletters, and successful annual “witty” tentpoles such as Dogue (a dog fashion magazine), she is more of a broad stroke journalist than a fashion insider. In 2014, she told Into the Gloss that she was “hesitant when I was interviewing, because fashion is not one of my main interests in life, and I wanted to be a writer more than an editor, but I was so seduced by the Vogue machine that I couldn’t resist”.

Still, a frontrunner since Wintour’s announcement, Malle’s appointment will come as no surprise to anyone tracking Condé Nast’s revolving door. The former editor-in-chief is known for rewarding close deputies with international roles – Mark Guiducci, Wintour’s Vogue’s creative editorial director, was recently helicoptered into the top job at Vanity Fair.

The gig was arguably up once Malle covered the high stakes and much-discussed Jeff Bezos-Lauren Sanchez wedding in Venice earlier this year. Given access to the bride before the ceremony and tasked with gathering additional details in the run-up to the wedding, the cover story followed her 2023 interview with the couple, and both are seen as proof of her mettle when juggling high profile celebrities with consumer interest.


A graduate of Brown University, Malle grew up in Los Angeles and began her career writing about property for the New York Observer. She has since written for the New York Times, Marie Claire, the Wall Street Journal and Architectural Digest. She joined Vogue in the features department 15 years ago, and has worked across various sections and platforms at the title.

Malle is also the daughter of American actor Candice Bergen, known for her wry humour and icy Nordic characters both on and off the stage, and the late film director Louis Malle, who lived in France because he “didn’t like living or working in Hollywood”, according to a 2015 interview with Bergen in Dallas News. In another curious play between life and art, Bergen had a long-running cameo as the lovelorn editor of US Vogue in Sex and the City. Malle is also one of the few names to have had her birth reported on by People magazine.

It’s been almost two months since Condé Nast first advertised the job on LinkedIn, but that hasn’t stopped the list of possible successors to jumping from pillar to post. According to insiders, Wintour told interview candidates that she was after a journalist who was able to oversee live content while travelling and mentoring regional editors abroad.

Among the names mooted for the plum role by William Hill bookies were the Duchess of Sussex, Kim Kardashian and Victoria Beckham. More sensible names included Malle’s British counterpart, Chioma Nnadi, the Financial Times’s HTSI editor, Jo Ellison, and – in a plot ripped straight from The Devil Wears Prada – even a man. Will Welch, the 45-year-old editor of GQ, who is credited with turning the men’s magazine from a general interest man’s publication into one focused on fashion and style, was in the top 10 favourites.

While Wintour’s team have been in pains to confirm that is she not stepping back, rather up, speculation surrounding her retirement have been a hot topic at a time of intense upheaval for the industry, which is grappling with declining sales. Wintour has kept a steady monthly circulation of over 1m over the last decade, while overseeing a global “digital-first” strategy that has seen content shared between global editions. It’s thought the mass restructuring sparked internal upset over the loss of editorial autonomy between each magazine.

Malle is well-liked both inside and outside the industry, and in hiring from within the company, Wintour will still be able to shape the magazine she will one day leave behind when she does finally exit the company. Condé Nast have insisted that nothing is really going to change. But for the most prominent glossy magazine on the shelf, Malle’s hire and Wintour’s move marks an end to a very particular era for glossy magazines.
 
Vogue Business released this article announcing that from 2026 Vogue will move from 10 to 8 print issues per year 'timed to tentpole moments and events like spring and autumn fashion, the Met Gala and Vogue World. The issues will be bigger than Vogue readers are currently used to, and printed on thicker paper'.

Vanity Fair will also decrease its print run to 8 issues per year, 4 seasonal and 4 themed.

The future of fashion magazines: Fewer, more premium issues​

After years of decline, magazines are getting a refresh with bigger, collectible editions no longer tethered to a monthly cadence. Is this the dawn of a new print era?
BY HILARY MILNES
October 3, 2025
The future of fashion magazines Fewer more premium issues

Photo: Acielle/ Style Du Monde
https://www.facebook.com/dialog/fee...are&utm_brand=vogue-bz&utm_social-type=earned

Fewer fashion magazines are being released per year. Is it a reckoning or a renaissance?

Editors across glossies — from niche to legacy titles — say that even if their media diets are primarily digital, readers are embracing thick, nicely finished issues that can double as collectors’ items or coffee table tomes. It’s a shift away from monthly drops that reflects how we consume content today, a bid for relevancy in the digital era.



“We want our shoots and cover stories to live in a place that feels substantial and that people want to keep,” says Vogue’s head of editorial content Chloe Malle. “I want it to have weight and import, and that should be reflected in the physical magazine and the content within.”


Starting in 2026, Vogue will shift from a monthly print cadence to eight issues per year in the US, timed to tentpole moments and events like spring and autumn fashion, the Met Gala and Vogue World. The issues will be bigger than Vogue readers are currently used to, and printed on thicker paper. It’s a change in strategy that Malle teased when she took on the job in September, after Anna Wintour stepped away from a day-to-day editorial role with Vogue (Wintour is still Vogue’s global editorial director and chief content officer for Condé Nast. Vogue Business is also owned by Condé Nast.)



“We’re investing in print to make it more special and impactful — I often call the print magazine our runway — and we’re making more space in our year to do ambitious stories on digital platforms,” Wintour says. “That’s where we can be versatile, agile and timely, and hopefully we try new things everywhere.”

Vogue's October issue featuring Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid.

Vogue's October issue featuring Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid.

Photo: Vogue


More Condé Nast titles are rethinking their print strategies: Vanity Fair will also shift to eight issues per year in the US, with four seasonal and four thematic editions. (These shifts apply to the American market; other regions have their own print schedules.) Paper quality and cover stock will increase, and global editorial director Mark Guiducci says that the actual number of pages per year won’t decrease, “meaning that each issue will look, feel and literally be more significant. Our eight issues will deliver more impact — not only for our subscribers, but also for our advertisers who are reaching a deeply dedicated audience and staying with them longer.”

Across the industry, publications are reconfirming their commitment to print, or launching the media for the first time. Digital-natives like The Cut have introduced print versions, while Nylon brought print back in 2024 after going digital-only in 2017. The majority of Cultured Magazine’s revenue comes from print. For WSJ Magazine editor-in-chief Sarah Ball, print revenues are up and the brand hasn’t cut back on issues. “Print is Mark Twain. Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. As a digital native, I’ve been being promised a total digital revolution for my entire near-20-year career, and at this point I’m about to give up,” she says. “The current resilience you see in print is not consistent everywhere, but it’s true for us.”

For luxury advertisers, more hefty, but less frequent, magazine issues are an alluring offer. Luxury brands have a penchant for print media for its tactile flourish, even as formats like TikTok and programmatic advertising have begun to dominate budgets. “Luxury brands have always had a strong affinity with print as it offers exactly what this category values most: craft, permanence, and storytelling,” says Cherry Collins, strategy partner at Havas Media UK. “In an age of fragmented feeds and programmatic targeting, the carefully edited, tactile experience of a premium print issue gives brands cultural weight and a halo of credibility.”


Image may contain: Body Part, Finger, Hand, Person, Head, Face, Happy, Laughing, Smile, Photography, Portrait, and Adult
Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Condé Nast’s chief revenue officer who assumed the role last August, sees print as a piece of the media company’s ecosystem — one way of many that readers and advertisers engage with Condé Nast brands. “We know that the media landscape is changing very quickly, so we’re evolving with customer appetites and needs,” she says.


Legacy media companies have begun shrinking their print cadences or ceasing print runs altogether over the past decade. At Condé Nast, titles like Teen Vogue, Glamour and Allure are now strictly digital. Seventy per cent of company revenue comes from digital and live experiences. Hearst Magazines started slashing print issues in 2020; today, Esquire releases six issues a year while Cosmopolitan does eight themed issues and Elle US and Harper’s Bazaar release 10. The company stopped printing titles like O and Seventeen.

Print advertising revenue and circulation has shrunk; according to a May report on magazine publishing in the US by Ibis World, estimated print magazine and periodical revenue in the region totalled $40.2 billion in 2025, down 2.9 per cent year-on-year. The report wrote that more premium and more niche periodicals were the best path to growth. S&P Global forecasted in January that digital advertising spend in the US would increase 9.1 per cent in 2025, while legacy media advertising spend, including print, would decline 7.6 per cent.

Bad Bunny on Vanity Fair in 2023.

Bad Bunny on Vanity Fair in 2023.
Photo: Vanity Fair


Diminished printing schedules have in the past served as proof of print’s long demise at the hands of digital media. But the commitment to making each available issue a more coveted collectible shows evidence that demand for print exists, perhaps as the antidote to our algorithmic content consumption. Havas Media’s recent New Codes of Luxury global research found that one-third of consumers cite magazine ads as a discovery trigger, while 40 per cent say filmic or slower content inspires them.

“Strategically, fashion and luxury brands see value in print. [Demand] is not just nostalgia from those of us who are a bit older, it is also from youth in terms of wanting something that’s tactile to hold onto,” says Herbst-Brady. “As opposed to a vehicle that’s distributing up-to-the-minute news, it’s more about a celebration and really meaningful engagement. I think it’s really important that the physical magazine represents what that end consumer wants at the moment, in the time that they want it, in a way that can be enduring.”

Attention as currency

Cultured Magazine, founded by editor-in-chief and CEO Sarah Harrelson in 2013, is one niche title that has hit its stride. The company reports revenues up 28 per cent year-on-year. The title releases five regular print issues annually with four supplementary versions tied to events like Art Basel, and one oversized “Cultured at Home” issue per year. They range in price, from $20 to $30.

“Most luxury brands believe strongly in the power of print, and the surge in power of niche magazines,” says Harrelson. “I think you still see a desire for that from most age groups. Media diets include everything now — legacy media, Substacks, niche magazines — and they’re more personalised.”

Two editions of Cultured Magazine featuring author Fran Lebowitz and actress Juliane Moore.

Two editions of Cultured Magazine featuring author Fran Lebowitz and actress Juliane Moore.
Photo: Courtesy of Cultured


Print as a brand halo has prompted New York Magazine’s fashion and lifestyle vertical The Cut — which launched in 2008 as a digital pureplay — to roll out a physical magazine released twice a year, with spring and autumn editions. Editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples Wagner sees print as part of The Cut’s holistic media strategy that includes a daily online feed, live reader events like The Cut Café, which took over a Bluestone Lane in Tribeca during New York Fashion Week, and oversized magazines with multiple, collect-them-all cover versions featuring different celebrities. This year’s autumn issue centred around “current cultural fixations”, says Peoples Wagner, and featured four different covers with Andrew Garfield; Sarah Paulson; Vivian Wilson; and Miley Cyrus alongside her mom, Tish, and siblings Noah and Brandi. The company reports that print revenue for the 2025 autumn issue was up double digits year-on-year.

The Cut launched in 2008 roll out a physical magazine twice a year.

The Cut, launched in 2008, roll out a physical magazine twice a year.

Photo: Courtesy of The Cut
“I’ve been a lifelong magazine lover. I grew up collecting and reading Teen Vogue,” says Peoples Wagner, who served as Teen Vogue’s editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. She wanted print to feel like a high-quality extension of The Cut’s digital work, oversized on nice paper stock with a glossy sheen logo. “We’re in an attention currency state, and you want people to read the work and engage with the work. The Cut essays make people sit down, stop and want to read. Digital is more fleeting, people keep scrolling. We can make really great work in print that you’re excited to have in your hands.”


While it may not ever again be a primary source of news, or as big of a business it once was, print is now a marketing vehicle as much as it is a revenue opportunity. “We don’t have explicit goals to double our number of print issues or anything like that. For us, it’s more about making sure all of our print issues are really fat, really full and feel really satisfying in their own right,” says Ball, who adds that weekend print reading seems to be a resilient habit. “We try to make sure we’re timing print when it makes sense for both readers and advertisers, rather than an old-fashioned ‘every month on the 15th’ type calendar.”

Two editions of the WSJ Magazine featuring Jacob Elordi and Ayo Edebiri.

Two editions of the WSJ Magazine featuring Jacob Elordi and Ayo Edebiri.

Photo: Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal Magazine
“Print in this context isn’t about reach at scale – what digital does best – it’s about credibility, cultural weight and storytelling that lasts beyond the scroll,” says Collins. “That’s why for luxury, print is evolving from being just another media channel to becoming the stage where a brand proves its artistry and permanence.”

Editors across the board emphasise a new era for the print edition, which is released from the traditional idea of how we consume news and is more intentional. Publishers are betting that fluidity mixed with longer lasting longevity will seal print’s future. “Print issues no longer move into the collectible category, they start there,” says Guiducci. “Print is both our best foot forward, and a document for posterity.”

“This is not about loss,” says Malle. “This is about gain, reinvesting resources and restrategising how we position print so that it feels less like the old-school idea of a newsboy delivering your daily news and more like a premium parcel, a special treat you want to keep and dig into in a rarefied way.”
voguebusiness.com
 
Looks like magazines are giving up on me before I give up on them.

US Vogue has tried this approach before - when they changed the size of the magazine to give the feel of a more premium product.

But it's what's on the pages that counts, not what they feel like. There is nothing worth 'collecting' in today's bundles of reprints, with bland editorials made to fit all regions. There's nothing premium about that approach.

I take it the yearly subscription costs won't be going down to reflect that people will be getting fewer issues?

As for Vanity Fair, it looks like I'll be buying even more issues of the French and Spanish editions than I already do.
 
Vogue Business released this article announcing that from 2026 Vogue will move from 10 to 8 print issues per year 'timed to tentpole moments and events like spring and autumn fashion, the Met Gala and Vogue World. The issues will be bigger than Vogue readers are currently used to, and printed on thicker paper'.

Vanity Fair will also decrease its print run to 8 issues per year, 4 seasonal and 4 themed.

voguebusiness.com
I miss the time when the covers said "900 pages of Fabulous Fashion"
 
Is not that evident they're trying things with GQ (first making less issues, creativity specials/awards, then sharing contents worlwide and then digital covers) to do the same with Vogue?!
 

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