The Business of Magazines

[eizhowa]

Has Shulman ever done a non-cringeworthy interview btw? The ones I have read and seen over the years have all been bad, but I might have read/seen a bad selection.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

I think it was wrong and disgusting of Naomi to paint her as a racist for writing the BoF feature though. To me, she doesn't sound like a racist.

I was personally disgusted by her description of Adwoa's race, as a "perfect mixture", she might not be an overt racist, but her white privilege is astounding in every single interview. She is most certainly ignorant, and tone deaf!! The way she defends her legacy and STILL claims she pioneered diversity is shameful, and a lie!! Every single argument she made was shot down by the journalist, why else did she have to bring up the "family friend"! But Naomi didn't single her out (you mean the Guradian G2 interview, right? Unless she did some other), and call her racist (Naomi actually says she worked with her a lot, and has respect). I read that interview, and she called the many attack pieces on Edward, even before his first issue was out, and there was many, and it was obvious why he was being attacked, as racist. He has been treated really unfair by the UK media, i really do agree with Naomi on that, and i don't usually care for her attitude!

But what Shulman & most people working in the industry fail to understand is that diversity is not just a black & white issue!! It's about shape, it's about age, it's about gender, and of course; religion. When you look at Shulman's 25 years, it's shocking how much of all those categories are lacking, and that is on her, and part of her legacy! No amount of failed attempts to change the history will make it different. She had no interest in championing anything that didn't serve her, and advance the sales(hence the over 35 covers with Moss, half of those generic, and awful). Some might say that is just good business, but i disagree! With great power comes great responsibility, it just....you know....."never entered her head" to use her position for anyone else's gain but her own!

 

[magsaddict]

Shulman suggesting there weren't enough black supermodels to use is such a weak excuse! i did a little digging through some of my back issues, and let's not forget May 2014 when she gave Kate Moss the cover (Moss had two that year) and only gave model of the moment Binx the supplement cover! there were ample opportunities for her to support up and coming models of colour and time and time again she insisted on using the same models. Kate Moss' 30+ British Vogue covers are beginning to look like less of an achievement and more like a symbol of Shulman's complete disregard for using models of colour.

That being said, it's important to clarify that i don't think the embarrassing lack of diversity in the magazine necessarily makes Shulman herself a racist. I think Shulman, her team and the industry at large are all to blame, but as the EIC, she has to accept some responsibility instead of just making bad excuses.

 

[honeycombchild]

I don't believe, at the core of it, Alexandra is a racist to be honest. She just has a horrendous way of talking about it and shockingly bad sense of self. She was in a position to help get a more diverse range of models out there, as the journalist suggests, but instead she wanted issues that brought in money. That was it. She didn't have any sense that she should be championing anything else and still, very clearly from this article, believes she was in the right.

She was there to make Conde Nast money, not to help equality and diversity in the industry. Mostly I just find that horrendously sad. She didn't care enough to do anything about it, assist, empower or raise the profile of anyone unless they were white and would sell a cover. The fact she is so open about it and admits it so freely is worrying, it's giving a voice to casual, everyday racism. A black model wouldn't sell, so I didn't use her. How will the industry ever evolve if women in powerful positions like she was, take that attitude? I wasn't tasked with the job of making things diverse, so I didn't.

It's sad. It sounds harsh I know, but I really wish Alexandra would disappear into oblivion and stop giving these interviews. Each one only digs her deeper into the hole she's created for herself.

 

[Miss Dalloway]

^ Exactly, it's just pitifully sad, even more so seeing her try and attempt to claim there wasn't a great pool of black models to pick from. Like Bertrando3 posted, there always are models of any race, they are just never given the same chances at the blue chip stuff. And i am so happy to see Arlenis and Sessilee mentioned, those girls were so fantastic, what a shame they never got more work!

Makes me wonder if she really resigned or otherwise. The bitterness is very apparent.

She defo resigned, it was her choice to leave on a high of the Anniversary. However, the rumor around town is that she regrets her decision. Apparently she told someone she should have stayed on for another 5 years, and left in her 30th year on the job. If that is true, then it speaks volumes about the content of her character, and thank god it didn't happen! I do have some respect for Alexandra and how much effort she put into the written word for her Vogue, but the Fashion.etc aspect, always lacked.

 

[magsaddict]

Just in the name of fact checking, the interviewer told Shulman that Naomi was on five covers during her time as editor, while Shulman said eight, i counted six.

June 1996 (solo)
January 1998 (solo)
February 2001 (solo)
October 2001 (with Puffy)
January 2002 (group)
August 2002 (solo)

 

[dodencebt]

Yes, Naomi has appeared on six covers since Alexandra took the reigns and only four of them were solo. The number she mentioned is actually the number of Vogue UK covers Naomi has in general.

 

[MagFan]

Naomi better check other british girls cover numbers, shut her mouth and be happy with what she got.

How on earth industry favorite for two decades Karen Elson has only two covers (1 MG & 1 OG)? Why such a unique beauty Erin O'Connor has just 2 MG covers? Jacquetta - 2 MG, Jodie Kidd - 1 MG and Alek - 1 MG. WTH?
​

 

[Lola701]

I'll repeat what i said in the rumors thread:
How can you expect anyone who hasn't championned anyone at all over the past 25 years to champion a model from her own country.

One thing is sure, Alexandra only wanted to put stars in her magazine. Kate has an enormous number of UK Vogue covers but it's not like she was discovered by someone at Vogue Uk.

In the past 17 years, we can all name models, photographers, stylist and designers discovered championned by Anna, Carine, Emmanuelle and Franca. Try that with Alex...
You'll fail miserably.

But then again, she seems to live in her ivory tower and maybe think that she is better than what she is. I don't think that before working for Vogue, she had high views on fashion.
I think that she worked for Vogue because of the prestige of title and the fact that it's under Conde Nast. She could have been the editor for any magazine to be honest...As long as there's a prestigious name attached.

 

[magsaddict]

i think 6 covers is nothing to sneeze at - especially considering Naomi had two covers a year in 2001/2. If you look at the chronology, it's almost as if something happened after 2002 and British Vogue decided not to put her on the cover anymore?

For any other British model, 6 British Vogue covers in 25 years is a fair amount, but when you factor in that her close friend and peer Kate Moss had 30+ covers in the same period, i don't think it's outrageous or uncalled for for Naomi to ask why. Still, Vogue Uk has given her the most covers by far, look at British Elle and Harper's during the same period - they barely gave her anything!

 

[Lola701]

i think 6 covers is nothing to sneeze at - especially considering Naomi had two covers a year in 2001/2. If you look at the chronology, it's almost as if something happened after 2002 and British Vogue decided not to put her on the cover anymore?

For any other British model, 6 British Vogue covers in 25 years is a fair amount, but when you factor in that her close friend and peer Kate Moss had 30+ covers in the same period, i don't think it's outrageous or uncalled for for Naomi to ask why. Still, Vogue Uk has given her the most covers by far, look at British Elle and Harper's during the same period - they barely gave her anything!

To be fair, after 2002, Naomi started to become more of a tabloid personality than a model. She had a lot of bad press and her reputation was it worse. If you pay attention to it closely, Naomi didn't have that much campaigns or print work at that time here in Europe.
She did some shows but that's it.
Naomi didn't make it easy for people to work with her.
When you have to deal with Diva attitude and the fact that she is always late...The choice is easily made.
She is not the only supermodel in the world and Liya Kebede was maybe the most active black model in the world during that period.
Naomi is more humble now.

 

[Benn98]

....it's almost as if something happened after 2002 and British Vogue decided not to put her on the cover anymore?

Precisely! Something most likely did occur....she either beat the staff with her Blackberry, or she pulled her diva antics by arriving late and the shoot ended up cancelled. Naomi is not entirely innocent here and should actually not be used as an example. I wonder why American Vogue also never bothered to give her a cover, since she felt more 'at home' there? Because even though Anna was all about celebs from 2001 onwards, Kate still managed to book two OG covers.

I think prime examples to be used here should be Liya, Joan, not exactly my cup of tea, but one cannot deny they were both powerhouses at their peak. They rivalled the likes of Natalia and Lara who got shoved down our throats by Alexandra's team.

 

[Deleted member 45369]

Liya is the most obvious exclusion here. She booked three US Vogue covers, one of them an only girl cover, and yet nothing from British Vogue.

 

[magsaddict]

I think Liya and Alek are the two biggest snubs by British Vogue, with the careers both have had there's no excuse.

 

[mathiaskatz]

Holy crud, just read that interview. What a trainwreck. The issue is beyond Naomi. 12 covers in 25 years is unacceptable!

Here's how she's defending herself:
- her son's grandfather was Robert Spike, a civil rights leader (she married into the Spike family), so obvi she can't be racist
- "There's a million other actresses who I didn't put on the cover"
- “You’re leading me down a path where I don’t really want to talk about who sells and who doesn’t sell." So black people don't sell I guess.
- “I have never been somebody who’s box-ticked. I’m against quotas. I feel like my Vogue had the people in who I wanted it to. I didn’t look at what race they were. I didn’t look at what sex they were. I didn’t look at what age they were. I included the people I thought were interesting.” So she doesn't look at race, but somehow hired 50+ people and they just HAPPEN to be white.

Other black celebrities that haven't had covers: Mel B, Thandie Newton, Sade, Naomie Harris, Gugu Mbatha-Raw

 

[eizhowa]

Just out of interest, has anyone actually checked if white models sell better than black models? Surely there is some data out there.

 

[Benn98]

I imagine it's a very complex question, Eizhowa. There are many factors which should be considered - the country, the time period, whether the audience with the most buying power is accustomed to diverse takes on beauty, how the cover is styled, who is on the cover etc etc. We all know 10/20 years ago the industry wasn't as diverse as it is now. So a Jessica Stam cover would've outsold a Liya one in 2006 despite the latter being more popular. I read somewhere that Liya's solo cover for US Vogue turned the worst sales in that decade. But I doubt it would be the same today. And yet it's Vogue's duty to lead and innovate, not follow or merely mimic what everyone is doing or what people want. That was Alexandra's mistake - toeing too much of a safe line, which I can also understand to a point. British Vogue is after all a very big edition.

Naomi happens to be the black model with the most British Vogue covers, and I think that frequency was without a doubt due to her popularity. So it's highly likely she sold better than most white models. Being white didn't automatically guarantee you a spot on the cover either. Alexandra herself said readers preferred approachable looking girls, and wasn't keen on raven and redheads. That explains why Karen's low number, and Hilary Rhoda's absence.

 

[Benn98]

I doubt we've seen the last of this senseless feud...

And for some odd readon Financial Times posted images of the menu of the homely restaurant where they met Edward, and his £50 bill, not sure why. I hope it's not to show how 'down-with-the-people' he is.

New Vogue editor Edward Enninful on catwalks, catfights and why fashion diversity matters
First man to edit British Vogue explains his gospel for the fashion bible

November 7, 2017
Carola Long

“Soooo fresh,” sighs Edward Enninful as he takes a sip of elderflower-and-lime “mocktail”, sounding as smooth and persuasive as the voiceover in an advert. We are tucked away at a corner table in the Portobello branch of Pizza East, a carb-centric contrast to my rendezvous with his predecessor, Alexandra Shulman, whom I met at a clubby Mayfair restaurant around the corner from Vogue House.

The new editor of British Vogue — the first man to hold the post in the magazine’s 101-year history — likes to visit Pizza East “five or six times a week”, if not for breakfast, then for supper after work. “I love it because it’s a local hang-out, it’s very low key.” On a weekday, the restaurant is quietly populated by a smattering of laptops-at-lunch thirtysomething freelancers who prop up the casual dining offshoot of Nick Jones’ Soho House Group.

“Local hang-out” and “very low key” are hardly phrases one would associate with Vogue. The Condé Nast-owned magazine, spun off into multilingual editions around the world, is still le dernier cri in a certain kind of glossy glamour. Thanks to fictionalised accounts such as The Devil Wears Prada, we almost expect its editors to make impossible demands of minions and cosy up to designers — an image bolstered by the power struggle following Shulman’s departure this year. To outsiders it may seem much ado about a magazine, but to designers the lucrative Vogue seal of approval, bestowed by the editor, is still much sought after.

Enninful wears all the terrible fashion angst lightly. Since he started in August, he’s been on a mission to change a magazine that could do with, if not a full facelift, then at least some freshening up. And just as American Vogue editor Anna Wintour has played up to her frosty maven persona, Enninful is on a campaign to be approachable.

In his dress, he wears his success discreetly. In common with many alpha fashion players, the 45-year-old favours a simple personal uniform, which he says he finds “comforting”. Today he’s in a white shirt (“I think it’s Prada”), black Burberry trousers and a charcoal tailored coat by Dries Van Noten. Hidden under his shirt cuff are a chunky Rolex and a decorative bracelet that he picked up in Positano. His thick-rimmed glasses give him a curious aspect, so that when he looks at me I feel closely scrutinised.

“Are you hungry? Shall we eat?” he asks as we look over the menu of stodgy staples such as pizza and lasagne cooked in a wood-fired oven. Enninful tells me he’s off meat since watching a documentary on Netflix called What The Health? But giving up chicken — his favourite food — is hard. “I grew up in an African household, so lots of chicken, lots of rice. We ate Jollof rice, a very west African dish.” His long-term partner, film-maker Alec Maxwell, does the cooking at home.

Enninful opts for a salt-baked salmon, saffron rice and butternut squash salad and, on his recommendation, I go for salt-baked salmon and aioli with a chickpea and pepper salad.

When I heard I got the job, I thought I would love to create a Vogue that is inclusive, that represents the world today

The first edition of Vogue under his editorship has just arrived on newsstands. I have already received a top-secret set of proofs of the December issue, hand-delivered by a nervous girl from the Condé Nast office. It’s the culmination of months of hysteria and hype. First Shulman announced her departure, in January, after 25 years at the helm. Then came the gossip-athon over who would get the job and the surprise, in certain circles, over Enninful’s appointment. And finally there was the “posh girl exodus” of long-serving staff, departing in a swift regime change dubbed “Vrexit”. Deputy editor Emily Sheffield and fashion director Lucinda Chambers were two high-profile departures; among new hires are film director Steve McQueen, super-stylist Venetia Scott and model Naomi Campbell as an unlikely interviewer.

He plays down the shake-up with customary diplomacy. “When any manager comes into a team they need to do that, and there were people who I felt would help me realise what I had in my mind, who I trusted.” With the future of print magazines uncertain, and with luxury fashion brands reviewing their business models, the most powerful man in British fashion has a job that’s going to be as challenging as it is chic.

Not only is Enninful the first male editor of British Vogue, and its first black editor, he’s also a stylist used to mastering imagery rather than words. He doesn’t have the invisible labels of privilege that most Vogue staff wear, and he wants Vogue to reflect that.

“When I heard I got the job, I thought I would love to create a Vogue that is inclusive, that represents the world today,” he says. “I spoke to many of my friends who live here [in London] and they felt that they weren’t represented somehow in the magazine. They come from all walks of life and I thought it’s very important to me to create a magazine that deals with a range of all sizes, age, gender, religion, modern Britain today. I wanted Vogue to be inviting and not so intimidating.”

After relocating from New York, he has moved back to west London, near his childhood stomping ground. He is even toying with buying a property on his old street. Enninful’s family emigrated from Ghana when he was a toddler. Growing up with his army officer father, seamstress mother and five siblings, he says he had a “happy” childhood. Fashion, he says, first sparked his interest when he watched his late mother running up clothes for local women on her Singer sewing machine. From her, he learnt how to make and customise his own designs.

“I come from a family who didn’t have much money but raised me to believe that money wasn’t the most important thing in the world. We had enough, we were happy. My mother and father just taught me the basics, to be really kind, to really listen to people. I have never been one to put on airs and graces.”

Nonetheless, he was awarded the honour of OBE last year for helping to diversify the fashion industry. He says his mother was “just over the moon, it meant so much to my parents, that’s why out of respect to my mother I always add it to my name.”

Enninful is unapologetically well connected — just look at him on Instagram, pictured with everyone from Rihanna to Madonna. But it was a chance meeting that started his career. “I didn’t know anything about the fashion industry until I met the stylist Simon Foxton on a Tube,” he says. “I was 16, on my way to Kingsway College and then my whole world opened up.” Squeaking with laughter, he adds, “before that, like in every African family, you are meant to be a lawyer.” The meeting with Foxton led to work as a model, stylist and then as fashion director of avant-garde style magazine i-D in 1991. He styled shoots for Vogue Italia and American Vogue (he has a cameo in the documentary The September Issue) and became creative and fashion director of American fashion magazine W in 2011.

Enninful is known for his maverick style: in 2005 he created a memorably kitsch story called “Makeover Madness” for Vogue Italia depicting supermodel Linda Evangelista as a wealthy fashion victim undergoing plastic surgery. In 2008 he masterminded an issue of Vogue Italia featuring only black models. It proved so popular that 40,000 extra copies were printed.

So what’s the master plan to boost the numbers at Vogue, currently with a print circulation of 190,021, down 2.6 per cent year-on-year? Condé Nast is in the process of slashing jobs and budgets, and will reduce the print version of UK Glamour to twice a year and make Teen Vogue in the US online only.

His reply, like those of many people hailed as visionaries, is vague. “I think the most important thing is the ability to speak to the woman out there and if an increase comes with that, great.” But has he been set a target? “Yes, but you’ll have to ask someone else about that.”

The average print reader is aged 38. Can he persuade millennials to buy the magazine? “That’s why we go back to digital and other platforms, which will hopefully lead them to pick up the magazine.” The digital team have now been combined with the magazine team in its Hanover Square offices. And how is he going to identify with a female audience? “I have been working with women for 20 years, my sex has never had anything to do with it. I love women and I always have.”

Issue one of the Enninful era speaks of an editor who doesn’t waste time on self-doubt or affectation. “Anyone who knows me will tell you that I don’t really dwell,” he says. “Of course I get stressed — I don’t always show it but everyone has their internal life.” After going to film director David Lynch’s transcendental meditation centre in the US, he now meditates for 20 minutes a day. His preternatural calm doesn’t come naturally.

Perhaps now that Enninful has landed the most important job in the British fashion industry, the staff at Pizza East will let him bring Ru, his soulful-eyed Boston terrier (who has his own Instagram account) into the restaurant? “Oh, I don’t want to push it.”All I can say is she was at Vogue for a quarter of a century. She had her Vogue, it represented the times, and I’ll have mine."

Enninful’s first Vogue has some standout pieces. In a wry feature by Zadie Smith about the Queen’s common touch, the writer describes how “distinctly lower-middle class” Her Majesty is, having her breakfast delivered in “airtight Tupperware alongside a copy of the Racing Post”. Amazonian Game of Thrones actress Gwendoline Christie talks about subverting female stereotypes, photographed by Juergen Teller in the Barbican, and British designers, including John Galliano and Victoria Beckham, go back to the places that shaped them. For Galliano it’s London’s Elephant and Castle, where he’s photographed at the bus stop. It’s also far more racially diverse.

Indeed, for his first cover star, he says “there was only one person I wanted”: 25-year-old mixed-race model-of-the-moment Adwoa Aboah. Aboah has been styled by Enninful in a silk turban and icicle-like diamond earrings, made up by black British make-up artist and now Vogue contributing editor Pat McGrath in shimmering blue disco eye-shadow and glossy scarlet lips, and photographed by Steven Meisel, who hasn’t shot for British Vogue since 1991. Although the cover has the soft colours and dreamy glamour of the 1970s, Enninful says, “she represents now, a generation, today, she uses her beauty to do something to the world, with [her online magazine] Gurls Talk. She’s mixed-race, so it’s about diversity, which was very important to me.”

Does he think the fashion industry is starting to address its woeful lack of diversity? “Conversations are happening and I like the fact that diversity is no longer just about black and white. It’s about shape, it’s about religion, it’s about gender, it’s so broad and I’m really thrilled by it. Though it’s not enough to put one black model in a show; we have to go back to magazines and designers’ studios and we have to figure out how we get interns, and people to work backstage [from diverse backgrounds].”

In August, Naomi Campbell posted a picture of Shulman’s all-white Vogue staff, and wrote: “Looking forward to an inclusive and diverse staff now that @edward_enninful is the editor.” I ask how he felt about her inflammatory post. He gives an indulgent smile, the kind you might give if your friend gets too drunk and is rude to someone you don’t like either. “You know, Naomi is Naomi. All I know is that my Vogue will be about going to certain schools and places where you wouldn’t normally look for interns, just open it up really.”

The waiter arrives with our lunch. “Can I get Tabasco?” Enninful asks. “I never eat anything without Tabasco — and chilli oil too, please. There is a chilli sauce here that they know I love. When you are a chilli enthusiast, you end up collecting it. All my friends at Christmas give me chilli.”

Conversation turns to his mentors, who include i-D founders Terry and Trisha Jones (they “gave an opportunity to a black kid from the inner city”) and Anna Wintour. He recalls showing the notoriously hard-to-impress editor “an idea I wanted to shoot in a junk yard. She was like, ‘amp it up, lift it, rich rich rich’, which are the phrases she used when something wasn’t glamorous enough. She really taught me how to mix art and commerce.”

Shulman, meanwhile, has not exactly pulled her punches. I wonder what Enninful made of an article by his predecessor for the website Business of Fashion about the demands of being an editor. Shulman’s conclusion, that editing is “certainly not a job for someone who . . . thinks that the main part of their job is being photographed in . . . designer clothes with a roster of famous friends” appeared to be aimed at Enninful, who has 615,000 followers on Instagram, and regularly posts pictures of himself with the likes of Nicole Kidman, Marc Jacobs and Katy Perry.

“Yes, I heard about the column,” he shrugs, with a bit of a pout, as our plates are cleared. “All I can say is she was at Vogue for a quarter of a century. She had her Vogue, it represented the times, and I’ll have mine. It was a disruption and a nuisance but I had a magazine to run, so I did that. I didn’t really give it much thought.”

Source: Ft.com

 

[Benn98]

Speaking of more serious scandals, is the fashion industry on the brink of its own Weinstein moment? Numerous women have accused photographer Terry Richardson of sexual harassment, and Condé Nast have announced that they will no longer work with him. Is Enninful aware of Richardson’s inappropriate behaviour? “I mean, I worked with Terry in the 1990s, the last time was probably 1998, we haven’t worked together for 20-something years. I’ve read the articles. The photographers I work with are incredibly kind and generous, things like that do not happen on my set.”

However, his own experiences have informed his views on how to keep models, in particular, safe. “I was a 16-year-old model going on shoots and I really empathise with the vulnerable. I was vulnerable but my mother would come with me sometimes, and I [was working with] incredible people like [photographer] Nick Knight. I have always wanted to create a safe haven on my shoots, whether it’s the make- up artist being a mentor, or people’s parents coming with them, I am open to that.”

Did people make advances towards him? “Yeah, I mean you are a kid, you don’t know what to do, but I had great people on set looking after me. I was so lucky.”

We both order a flat white, and Enninful orders a ginger juice to take away. The conversation winds down with some eclectic non-shop talk — from his preferred fragrance (Commes Des Garçons Kyoto incense) to the cross on his bracelet (“I’m Church of England, I’m not religious but my family are a bit. I believe there is someone looking after us but I wouldn’t say it was God”) and I ask Enninful how exactly he has become so well connected.

“There’s a certain approachability I know I have, it’s not something you can switch on or off.”

Enninful believes “we live in times where it’s important to be approach*able. Those days of being frosty and stand-offish to people are gone.” A surprising sentiment from one of the most powerful editors in magazine journalism. But then again, fashion likes nothing better than reinvention.

Source: Ft.com

 

[Benn98]

Radhika Jones, Vanity Fair’s Surprise Choice, Is Ready to Go

By SYDNEY EMBER
NOV. 13, 2017

Radhika Jones, 44, will become Vanity Fair’s sixth editor since its founding in 1913 and the fifth since it was revived in the early 1980s. Credit Chad Batka for The New York Times

Radhika Jones grew up around music. Her father, Robert L. Jones, a singer and guitarist, was a prominent figure on the Cambridge, Mass., folk scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s. When he decided he wanted to travel less, she sold T-shirts and worked the box office at the many events, including the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, he helped produce.

“One thing I really learned from my father,” Ms. Jones said in an interview on Sunday night, “was the kind of excitement and rush of discovering new talent and keeping an open mind to new voices and bringing artists together.”

That love of discovery will come into play for Ms. Jones, the editorial director of the books department at The New York Times and a former top editor at Time magazine, now that she has accepted one of the most high-profile jobs in media: editor in chief of Vanity Fair.

Condé Nast, the company that owns Vanity Fair, made the formal announcement on Monday. Ms. Jones, 44, will become the magazine’s sixth editor since its founding in 1913 and the fifth since it was revived in the early 1980s. She will succeed Graydon Carter, 68, who said in September that he would step down after a 25-year run at the helm. Her appointment takes effect on Dec. 11.

It is a remarkable transfer of power at a magazine long defined by Mr. Carter’s sensibility — a stew of Anglophilia, liberal politics, old-style Hollywood glamour and a sense of mischief. Unlike Mr. Carter, a co-founder of the satirical Spy magazine who went on to become an establishment fixture and gatekeeper, Ms. Jones is hardly the gallivanting celebrity editor many media observers assumed would end up as his successor.

Whip-smart and unassuming, with meticulous handwriting and an erstwhile fondness for Tetris, Ms. Jones seems suited to a new era — of transformation but also of restraint — at Vanity Fair and Condé Nast.

“In Radhika, we are so proud to have a fearless and brilliant editor whose intelligence and curiosity will define the future of Vanity Fair in the years to come,” Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue and Condé Nast’s artistic director, said in a statement.

A compendium of culture high and low, politics and distinctive visuals, Vanity Fair was resuscitated in 1983, after a 47-year absence, to add some swank and intelligence to the Condé Nast stable in the days before the company had purchased The New Yorker. Its pages have featured the combative essays of Christopher Hitchens, the dishy features of Dominick Dunne and the high-production portraits of Annie Leibovitz — but the magazine has also remained a holdout as its publisher looks to become leaner and less tied to its print titles.

Mr. Carter has said he mulled leaving the magazine earlier this year but for the election of a longtime foil, Donald J. Trump. (The magazine saw a spike in subscriptions after Mr. Trump tweeted last year that the magazine was “Way down, big trouble, dead!”) He had balked at Condé Nast’s belt-tightening and resisted efforts inside the company to consolidate its design, research, photo and copy teams.

It was not a good time at Condé Nast, or anywhere else in the cash-strapped magazine industry, to scoff at cost-cutting. The company expects to bring in $100 million less in revenue this year than it did in 2016, and it is in the middle of laying off 80 employees. This month, it said it was reducing the print frequency of titles like GQ, Glamour and Architectural Digest and shuttering the print edition of Teen Vogue.

To follow Mr. Carter’s long run, executives sought an editor who could carry on Vanity Fair’s journalistic traditions and travel seamlessly between the spheres of Hollywood, Washington and New York. At the same time, the new editor would be charged with taking the title beyond its printed form — and with fewer resources — according to an executive briefed on the selection process.

Guessing Mr. Carter’s replacement became a parlor game at media industry parties. Among the names that surfaced were Adam Moss, the editor of New York magazine; Janice Min, who revitalized Us Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter; and Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist at The New York Times and a host of CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

The decision was ultimately up to Robert Sauerberg, the chief executive of Condé Nast, who oversaw the search along with Ms. Wintour. David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, was also heavily involved.

It was Mr. Remnick who brought in and championed Ms. Jones, the executive said, and she eventually won over the others.

“We didn’t need a name for the sake of a name or a celebrity,” Steven O. Newhouse, a nephew of the late Samuel I. Newhouse and a top executive at Condé Nast’s parent company, Advance Publications, said in an interview. “We really wanted someone who could do the job and be a worthy successor to Graydon, and I think we found someone.”
“She has vision and energy and a very active mind,” Mr. Newhouse added, “and I think that’s what Vanity Fair needs.”


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Ms. Jones was the only candidate Mr. Newhouse met.
A product of Ridgefield, Conn., by way of New York and Cincinnati, Ms. Jones graduated from Harvard College and received a doctoral degree in English and comparative literature from Columbia University. She has lived in Taipei and Moscow, where she got her start in journalism as the arts editor at The Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper. (Her Russian, she said, is rusty.)

Many editors in her position would proclaim their love of magazines, particularly the one they are about to sit atop, but Ms. Jones was characteristically candid.

“It’s hard for me to exactly figure out when I became obsessed with magazines,” she said.

Did she read Vanity Fair growing up?

“On and off,” she said.

She declined to describe her plans for Vanity Fair. “I need to get oriented first — there’s a lot to take in,” she said. She also demurred when asked about any writers she was considering. “I’m just really interested in discovery,” she said.

Ms. Jones, who joined The Times last November, is not the first person to make the move from Times books coverage to the top editorial position at Vanity Fair. In 1981, as Condé Nast announced its plan to revive the Jazz Age title, it appointed Richard Locke, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, to run it. “We take risks,” Alexander Liberman, then Condé Nast’s editorial director, said when asked about the selection.

Mr. Locke was replaced by a Condé Nast veteran, Leo Lerman, four issues into his run.

Those who know Ms. Jones believe she will thrive, citing her academic background as well as the breadth of her interests. Before she joined The Times, she was a deputy managing editor at Time magazine, where she transformed the Time 100 franchise into an eclectic mix of celebrities and unheralded visionaries. After the issue’s corresponding annual gala, she would host an all-night karaoke party at a Midtown dive. At The Paris Review, the literary quarterly able to make a young writer’s career, she served as managing editor.

“She once referred to herself as a ‘formerly shy person,’ as someone who had to learn how to speak out,” said Nancy Gibbs, who recently stepped down as the top editor at Time. “She doesn’t come on incredibly strong. She doesn’t overpower you with her ideas — she’s a different kind of presence.”

In his quarter century at Vanity Fair, Mr. Carter parlayed its editorship into elite social status. A party host, producer of documentary films and Broadway shows, political commentator and restaurateur, he became part of the celebrity fabric. On his watch, Vanity Fair’s annual post-Oscar party became one of the year’s most glittery, star-studded affairs.

It is perhaps inevitable that Ms. Jones will invite comparisons with Mr. Carter, just as he had to live up to the expectations of readers who had grown to love the version of Vanity Fair created by his predecessor, Tina Brown. Some in the media world are already scrutinizing her experience for signs she will not measure up, particularly when it comes to Mr. Carter’s ability to navigate Hollywood.

Her supporters reject any notion she will not succeed on every level. And in case anyone was wondering, yes, she will preside over the 2018 Oscar party.

“The reality is, she has incredible credentials to direct a magazine that’s so focused on culture,” Mr. Newhouse said.

“I think that she’s fully capable of all the elements of Vanity Fair,” he added. “Obviously, you don’t start out — as Graydon didn’t start out — the way that Graydon ended up.”

Source: NYtimes.com