The Business of Magazines

[KoV]

Also, sorry to double post but I just don’t see how it’s fair to discount these individuals because ‘well, they said it was a great job before.’ Have you never said publicly that your job was one way while also knowing you suffered in others ways you weren’t comfortable sharing with others? I know as POC I certainly have at multiple jobs in my life. Even now if someone were to ask me about my current job, I might have mostly positive things to say. But it also depends on who’s asking, it depends on if I’m looking for another job and realize speaking ill of my current one could negatively effect me, it depends on if I believe the person really wants or needs to know the gritty details of my experiences. Don’t be quick to discount someone in this instance because of past comments they made. It’s not that simple.

It certainly rings true that employees, especially if they’re already being discriminated against, may not feel comfortable speaking out for fear of repercussion. In the case of Condé Nast, though, we’re talking about employees who likely already come from a place of privilege (some based on race, but others based on connections, finances, education, etc) and who would leverage their time at Condé Nast to springboard into more lucrative positions elsewhere. If they were, without prompting, publicly praising the company *specifically on the basis of diversity or culture change* I don’t think that’s the same as being afraid to speak out. It’s possible that it’s just opportunism and the willingness to provide cover (if they believe Condé Nast is a racist company) for as long as it aided their own ambition. I think it’s fair to be skeptical. Just like now, some of the whistleblowers are doubling their followers by coming forward. However true what they say is, the fact they were a seemingly willing participant for years and are only speaking out in a time when it’s socially and even fiscally advantageous to do so is going to be met with some skepticism. Of course it’s not the job of BIPOC to do the leg work of creating a better, more inclusive culture within a company. But when someone calls working at Vogue a “blessing” and “the most rewarding work I’ve ever done” that’s a full-fledged endorsement, imo. Take André Leon Talley, for example. He was happy to be Anna’s friend for years when it meant staying at Vogue, tickets to the Met Gala, a platform with lots of visibility, influence and power by association, trips around the world, etc. now that Anna seems vulnerable, didn’t send him a thank-you note, and he has a book to sell, she’s a “Colonial Dame” and the scum of the earth. To me, anecdotes from him are less damning and less trustworthy, because of his history, than those of people like Noor Tagouri, whose treatment by some at Vogue is troubling, to put it mildly.

 

[vogue28]

Conde Nast announce Anna Wintour will NOT be resigning:

 

[MON]

But do better.

 

[dodencebt]

I mean, no sh*t.

 

[Lola701]

If Wintour had any decency, she would resign, and go. But somehow I don't see CN suits allowing for that to happen, she would have to leave on her own accord, and I hope she does!

Resign because you’ve done a fault, a tangible fault...Why not. Resign because people think your time has come and because suddenly people decides to question the relevancy of your voice in a very social time? No.

As stated by CN, she won’t leave her job. If she left CN, it would be the end of CN because it would have shown how Fragile CN is as an institution. That means that the next one after her would be forced to resign when the 1st controversy comes.

I think her challenge now will be to change the culture of Vogue and CN for this decade. It’s not about the magazine, the sales or anything else (the majority of people who wants her to resign does not even read Vogue...Let alone US Vogue) but the perception of Vogue. That’s her challenge.
She has the power, the influence, the desire (I can only believe what she says) and the pressure to do it.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Conde Nast announce Anna Wintour will NOT be resigning:

 

[Lola701]

If we all want to do better, may we all also call out:

Masha Fedorova of Vogue Russia
Emmanuelle Alt of Vogue Paris
Eugenia de la Torriente of Vogue Espana
Emanuele Farneti of Vogue Italia
Thaleia Karafyllidou of Vogue Greece
Richard Dennen of Tatler

Demands for inclusivity must be across the board. Change has to come from the top down.

I totally agree but it should be a industry thing. Not just Vogue...
Is Nytimes inclusive? Is Elle (worldwide) inclusive?

We have to acknowledge the weight of nepotism in the fashion industry and the fact that it’s very difficult to even get into the industry in those « higher spheres » if you don’t know somebody.

The US and UK open more opportunities for people of color or people who aren’t privileged (because they are also black privileged people) but overall, it’s harder in France or Italy to even be an intern.

For example it’s super difficult for a random black man who loves fashion to have an internship in a house like Dior. But Stevie Wonder’s son got that internship and I don’t think he realized the privilege he has.

Personally, if my grandmother wasn’t a seamstress in a fashion house, I don’t think working in the fashion industry in the early 00’s in France would have been even a possibility for me.

At the same time, the people in place today got their first feet in the industry because they knew somebody.

I would love to have a black editor working for VP or even an Arab editor. There’s a need for representation but also for support from consumers. The fact that a black woman sells less on a cover of VP when the content is almost the same every month is still an issue. The fact that you need multi covers to be able to put a black woman on a cover is an issue.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Anna Wintour Not Leaving Vogue and Condé Nast, CEO Tells Staff
Facing a reckoning on diversity, ceo Roger Lynch is said to have told staff that new rumors of Anna Wintour's departure are untrue.

Kali Hays

Rumors of Anna Wintour’s impending departure from Vogue and its publisher Condé Nast have taken hold of New York media circles in the last day, but she’s not going anywhere just yet.

At an all-hands meeting on Friday led by Condé’s chief executive officer Roger Lynch, he clarified to staff that Wintour is not leaving the company, sources told WWD. Wintour is not only the editor in chief of Vogue for the last 32 years, but the artistic director of Condé since 2014, overseeing all of the publisher’s remaining magazines and digital brands.

A spokesman for Condé confirmed, repeatedly, that Wintour is indeed staying in her roles.

Last summer, Lynch also gave Wintour the additional title of global content adviser for Condé, which is still in the process of combining its U.S. and international operations after decades as separate entities with separate leadership. At the time, Lynch made it a point to clarify Wintour’s ongoing position with the company, as well as that of The New Yorker editor David Remnick, as speculation was happening that neither editor would want to stay and work for a new ceo who is also the first true Condé outsider to take on the job.

But in the run-up to a late Thursday story published in The New York Times, New York media and fashion circles were buzzing with the rumor that the story was going to reveal Wintour’s resignation. Vogue staffers were talking openly with one another about the possibility; there were a number of tweets from media types claiming to have heard that Wintour was on the way out; fashion insiders were texting each other, saying they’d heard the end was nigh.

Alas, the rumors were just that, and another addition to what has been a decade, at least, of talk that Wintour was on her way out. The situation is very similar to a few weeks in summer 2018, when an amount of certainty took hold in fashion circles that Wintour was leaving Vogue. Condé’s former ceo Bob Sauerberg had to come out publicly to tell WWD that Wintour was staying with the publisher “indefinitely” in order to quell the rumors.

Nevertheless, the Times story on Thursday night attempted to lay out a case for why Wintour may not survive the current movement, namely Vogue’s intentional brand of elitism and Wintour’s decades at the helm of a magazine that only in recent years has made a push toward diverse covers, editorial and content. As the protests over the police killing of George Floyd have turned into a movement on the issue of racism in America, people in media and the public at large are demanding true change at all sorts of institutions regarding true diversity and retribution for longtime bad actors, many of whom are in media. Most notably at Condé’s Bon Appetit and Vice’s Refinery 29, both publications have seen their editors abruptly resign in the last week over revelations of racism, both overt and institutionalized.

Insiders, however, say Wintour is not planning to step back from Condé any time in the immediate future. Her legacy at Vogue is of paramount concern, and her dedication to American fashion at large is still very strong. She is said to be determined to see it out of the current economic crisis caused by measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

She is also said to still have the full support of Steven Newhouse, chairman and ceo of Condé owner Advance Publications, who maintains much control over the publisher. If Wintour wants to leave Vogue at some point, the timing of her departure is thought to be largely up to her, at least for now.

But it is thought that Wintour will leave Vogue, someday. And there is said to be some level of succession planning in place for that eventuality. Sources have it that current thinking is for Edward Enninful to take over U.S. Vogue while also continuing to lead U.K. Vogue, which he took over in 2017 to much fanfare.

Enninful is said to have a good relationship with Jonathan Newhouse, who led Condé’s international operations from London until Lynch came in last year to combine the company into one, as well as with his wife Ronnie Newhouse. Newhouse is now chairman of Condé. Enninful also has proven adept at nabbing major celebrity covers and collaborators, like Rihanna, Oprah and Meghan Markle, and his updating of the look of the magazine is said to have gone over well internally. Not to mention having Enninful across two publications would save millions of dollars in salary and allow for an easy ability to share content and resources across titles.

Should this passing of the Vogue mantle come to pass, a number of sources say Wintour would actually stay with Condé in her broader corporate role of artistic director. The precedent for that is Alexander Liberman, who worked with Condé for 58 years, moving on from decades as Vogue’s art director to editorial director of all Condé’s publications until he was in his early 80s.

For now, Wintour is still very much the leader of Vogue. She’s held meetings this week with staff, in which she’s said to have given no inkling that a leadership change is coming, and is said to have already made some new plans to get a more diverse masthead and contributor pool for the magazine. She also sent staff something of mea culpa memo, two days after Bon Appetit’s editor was deposed.

“This is a historic and heartbreaking moment for our country and it should be a time of listening, reflection, and humility for those of us in positions of privilege and authority,” Wintour wrote in the memo. “It should also be a time of action and commitments. On a corporate level, work is being done to support organizations in a real way. These actions will be announced as soon as possible.”
source | wwd

 

[mathiaskatz]

Anna Wintour Is Not Resigning, Says Condé Nast Chief
Speculation that the Vogue editor in chief might exit her role hit a fever pitch on Thursday, after a week of racial reckoning at the publisher.
BY CHANTAL FERNANDEZ

In a town hall Zoom meeting with Condé Nast employees on Friday led by senior executives, Chief Executive Officer Roger Lynch confirmed that Anna Wintour will not be resigning from her roles at the publisher. The Vogue editor in chief, who also serves as US artistic director and global content advisor for the publishing house, did not speak. But Lynch was clear in his support of her, stating that she will be a powerful force for change in the business.

“There are very few people in the world who can have the influence on change and culture, as it relates to the activities that our business has, than Anna,” Lynch said. “The reason she is here is because she can help influence the change that we need to make, and I know she is committed to it.”

New speculation that Wintour might give up her post at the top of the fashion magazine hit a fever pitch on Thursday and Friday. A chaotic week at Condé Nast had employees speak out about discrimination in the workplace and pay inequities, resulting in the resignation of Bon Appétit Editor-in-Chief Adam Rappaport and VP of Video Matt Duckor.

In the company meeting on Friday, Condé Nast executives laughed off the rumours about Wintour, which have dogged her for years and escalated most recently in 2018, resulting in months of speculative coverage made more intense by the absence of a clear denial from then-Chief Executive Bob Sauerberg until months after the questions began.

In a memo sent to Vogue staff on June 5, Wintour acknowledged that under her leadership, Vogue has “not found enough ways to elevate and give space to” black creatives, and that the magazine has published “hurtful or intolerant” images and features. “I take full responsibility for those mistakes,” she wrote.

After the resignation of Rappaport on Monday night, Lynch hosted a first town hall meeting the following day to address concerns. Many employees then criticised him on social media for appearing to blame employees for not speaking up about discrimination earlier. He promised the company would conduct an internal study on diversity and salaries by the end of the summer.

On Thursday night, the New York Times published a column that questioned if Condé Nast’s “culture built on elitism and exclusion” could possibly change during this moment when so many are asking for institutions to examine if their workplaces promote equality and diversity. Former employees spoke about the challenges they faced getting internal resources while struggling to combat lazy stereotypes. But no one “felt free to speak on the record,” a testament still to Wintour’s influence in the industry and the already challenging media job market, pushed to the limit by the coronavirus.

Friday’s town hall — during which Lynch spoke along with Chief Communications Officer Danielle Carrig, Chief People Officer Stan Duncan and Chief Marketing Officer Deirdre Findlay — will be the first in a daily series of employee meetings hosted by Lynch as Condé Nast tries to figure out how to become a more inclusive workplace. Lynch said he hoped Wintour would address the company herself next week.

Wintour has avoided addressing speculation about her departure in the past. When asked about her potential exit in August 2018 by BoF, she said: “I’ve never addressed [the rumours]. That is my point of view; respect it, please.”

Wintour acknowledged that under her leadership, Vogue has “not found enough ways to elevate and give space to” black creatives, and that the magazine has published “hurtful or intolerant” images and features. “I take full responsibility for those mistakes,” she wrote.

“There are very few people in the world who can have the influence on change and culture, as it relates to the activities that our business has, than Anna,” Lynch said. “The reason she is here is because she can help influence the change that we need to make, and I know she is committed to it.”

So she's acknowledged not enough's been done... but we're just supposed to trust her because the CEO knows she's committed to it? The same CEO that said “I think if people had used the internal channels and raised concerns about this earlier on, we would’ve been able to address them,” when so many people have already complained prior and nothing was ever done.

cr: bof

 

[tigerrouge]

Anna represents another statue that people want pulled down.

Meanwhile, the power of the Vogue cover remains so strong that people across social media are imagining themselves as part of one.

There's a disconnect between the desire people have for the brand and their distaste for the person who has ensured it remains so desirable to this day.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Anna represents another statue that people want pulled down.

Meanwhile, the power of the Vogue cover remains so strong that people across social media are imagining themselves as part of one.

There's a disconnect between the desire people have for the brand and their distaste for the person who has ensured it remains so desirable to this day.

The power of the Vogue brand Anna’s complete power over it.

 

[vogue28]

Stephen Gan on the outs at V Magazine?



*Edit* Replacing since removed post.

 

[MissMagAddict]

The fashion media is eating itself alive in real time.

 

[Lola701]

I guess with that photo, Gaga is cancelled too?
The question is: will it impact the career of Gan? Because once again, the people who will voice their outrage are readers of V and aren’t going to cancel brands working with him.

At the same time, I think that the fact that he is not on social media kinda protects him. He does not have to publicly apologize or even respond.

 

[honeycombchild]

Personally I never saw that image of Gaga as being an attempt to alter the look of her race or heritage, or even play off another’s. I always saw it as a sort of play on the trashy, very heavily tanned look of someone like Donatella, leathered and out in the sun for too long. Perhaps I read it entirely wrong at the time?

 

[KoV]

Diet Prada deleted the post and then reposted, but switched out the Gaga photo for one of Alicia Keys. Very odd.

 

[Lola701]

Diet Prada deleted the post and then reposted, but switched out the Gaga photo for one of Alicia Keys. Very odd.

It seems like they have their favorite...
Suddenly, I wonder if they would have voiced those allegations if Gan was involved with Prada/MiuMiu.

I wish people had the same energy with calling Diet Prada out for their apparent biais.

 

[axiomatic]

 

[MissMagAddict]

In other fashion-mag news: Kate Lanphear returns to @tmagazine as women's style director, starting Monday

Smart move. I can’t think of anyone better to work for right now in fashion magazines than Hanya Yanagihara.

 

[octoberchild]

I have a feeling she's waiting for a Biden win, get the ambassador position Hillary allegedly promised her (Hillary is still very influential in the Democratic Party, more so the Biden campaign) and then leave.

Really. This is so ridiculous, Anna does not have that much power where she can sit on her you know what and wait for an ambassadorship to be handed to her on a silver platter when she couldn’t manage to land one when there were not cracks in her “most important person in fashion” mantle. Who is rushing to give Colonial Broad a role in their administration at her age? Especially since she had the audacity to write an op-ed demanding a black woman VP while she was admitting internally that she missed the mark on diversity. The audacity. Why should any campaign listen to her, with her hypocrisy? Do you all think before you type?

The woman installed numerous POC and female editors in the CN stable, pushed for diverse subjects inside and on the cover of Vogue way ahead of other US fashion magazines, just headlined a drive to offer financial support to American designers through the pandemic, managed to set up that iconic moment at LFW with HM, and people think she'll get sacked or fall out of favour because XYZ doesn't have a Vogue cover? LOL.

Yes, imo she should be going because I've not enjoyed a single cover or issue of Vogue this year....

^^^ LOL Didn’t you know only Kerry and this Tracee person are capable of taking Anna down? And the rest of the editors that didn’t give these women a cover must be quaking in the SL boots now...

Talk s*hit and make fun of me all you want.

The reality is that I have a unique perspective as a black woman that your so called queen is now supposedly going to take into consideration and value more (yeah right).

And the days of me picking up a Vogue with a black woman on the cover is over. And has been for years. And that’s before the events of this week.

Black women celebs, especially now that Samira is at HB, will not be appearing on Colonial Broad’s cover. Which will make CB’s diversity efforts harder, making delivering on her promises harder to accomplish. Period. The black community, myself included, will view the black woman as being willing to tokenize herself for a white woman who is desperately holding on to her last grasps of power. Black people will NOT look kindly on any black woman that signs up to be tokenized in this environment. It’s not going to happen. Black woman celebs need to stay in the good graces of black people because they can not rely on support from women and people of other races.

What can Colonial Broad offer these black women that will make them appear on her cover and risk being publicly shamed in the media, social media and having their integrity and all their activism questioned? What can she offer?

You all can talk s*hit and make fun of me, but can you answer what CB can offer black women to make them appear on her cover at this point in time and subject themselves to major scrutiny? Can anyone?

You can’t.

But you all are free to put your heads in the sand and be completely oblivious. When Samira starts her editorship at HB and starts landing major exclusives (I fully expect HB to get the first interview with the women VEEP candidate, especially with that stunt CB pulled, the campaign will not want the VEEP to get bad press especially if she’s a black woman which is increasingly likely) maybe you all will get a clue.

Who am I kidding, you won’t. You’ll come up with some other excuse as to why I’m wrong. Instead of actually reflecting on what I’m saying. No wonder you all stan Anna. She upholds the colonial fashion industry standards and racism and general exclusionary practices that you all seem to love so much. Shameful.