The Business of Magazines

[Buffaloed]

Thread Repaired.

 

[MDNA]

Is Portugal the Next Fashion Capital of the World?
by Declan Eytan

There was the October 2017 relaunch of its local Vogue edition – which has since taken a visual direction that seemingly prioritizes artistic freedom over commerce – in addition to being the native land of the founder behind luxury e-tail giant Farfetch. Add to that, the export of some of the modelling industry’s most in-demand faces. Plus, local manufacturers dealing with demand from luxury apparel houses the world over. In short – the ingredients allowing Portugal to be integrated into the global fashion conversation, in an unprecedented manner.

...

In the meantime, longtime Moda Lisboa media partner Vogue Portugal has also been doing its part in making the world take notice of the country’s fashion cred. It’s not until a recent change in art direction however, that the magazine’s creative efforts are met with rave reviews from the international fashion community. One of the magazine’s three April 2018 covers – featuring a nude portrait of models Fernando Cabral and Alba Galocha shot by photographer Branislav Simoncik – enjoyed a viral moment on social media. A remarkable feat in today’s publishing environment, when not relying on celebrity power or shock value.

“The new path of Vogue Portugal points to a more minimalist way, yet not less bold nor less profound in its printed language. Covers are now much cleaner, and we have only one cover line conveying the main message,” Sofia Lucas says. Lucas is the Editor-in-chief of Vogue Portugal and acts as the CEO and co-founder of Lighthouse Publishing – the company which publishes GQ and Vogue in the Portuguese market. The Vogue editor further comments, “What the local industry needs to (re)discover is its origin – the wealth of its traditional fashion legacy. The world, as well as most Portuguese, have no idea what this legacy is. It is with this in mind that Vogue Portugal is developing a special project to be announced shortly. I am convinced that the latter will be a benchmark in the Portuguese fashion industry at large.”

forbes.com

 

[Benn98]

Thanks for this, MDNA!

What I find most interesting, and maybe this is something which Portuguese locals should be weighing in on, is whether this new Vogue Portugal actually serve a purpose to Portuguese audience. The success behind Vogue Australia or China's defined identity is that they've started with tailoring their content for locals first. And to develop a unique visiual pov. It's the reason why we would sometimes refer to an effortless beachy edit or visual style as very 'Australian.' I somehow don't get the same impression from Vogue Portugal despite their slick overhaul. The team appear to go to great lengths to sit pretty next to other editions rather than actually developing a unique native identity.

 

[axiomatic]

Was this posted anywhere??

It was all just a misunderstanding.

An ex-Vogue staffer rejected a no-jail plea deal Wednesday for stealing more than $50,000 from the fashion magazine’s former creative director, according to prosecutors.

“The defendant has turned down that offer, saying it was all a misunderstanding,” the ADA said of Dublin-born beauty Yvonne Bannigan, who stood beside her attorney in a demure floral dress and black flats in Manhattan Criminal Court.

“The people have evidence that there was no misunderstanding, and that the defendant abused the trust of the complainant and used her credit card as a personal ATM,” said prosecutor Travis Wolf.

Bannigan, 24, is accused of racking up $53,564 in unauthorized purchases between May 2016 and April 2018, according to court papers.

She also allegedly sold $9,000 worth of Grace Coddington’s designer duds online and failed to turn over the proceeds.

The flame-haired Vogue editor and former model stepped down as the magazine’s creative director in 2016 and hired Bannigan the same year as a personal assistant, records show.

Authorities said they intend to present the felony larceny case to a grand jury Thursday.

Defense lawyer Michael Cornacchia insisted that Bannigan turned down the deal because she’s innocent.

“She didn’t do anything wrong,” the attorney said. “This case is driven by Grace Coddington, and as such, her credibility, recollection and motives in bringing this case will be scrutinized by us and hopefully the district attorney.”

The rejected deal would have left Bannigan with a misdemeanor conviction. The former Elle intern would have also had to pay restitution and perform community service.

https://nypost.com/2018/07/18/ex-vogue-staffer-spending-editors-cash-was-all-a-misunderstanding/

 

[Benn98]

In the Age of Trump, Ignore Women’s Magazines at Your Peril

It’s not just Teen Vogue. Readers are flocking to the websites of Glamour and Cosmo, and they’re responding with aggressive political reporting.

By
Riley Griffin
July 20, 2018, 10:00 AM GMT+2 Updated on July 20, 2018, 6:37 PM GMT+2

No one can predict with certainty the direction of women’s magazines, which have struggled to maintain print circulation as newsstand sales continue to fall. But if you’re placing bets on a strategy that might help them flourish, look no further than Samantha Barry, the 36-year-old woman who is reinventing Condé Nast’s legacy title, Glamour.

An Irish-born millennial with hard-news experience via BBC and CNN, she’s using her digital expertise to drag the title into the 21st century. Part of her plan is political. She’s seizing the moment to remind female readers that the big glossies have always been the best source of reporting on topics critical to women.

With Donald Trump in the White House, Republicans in control of Congress and a potential abortion-outlawing majority coming to the U.S. Supreme Court this fall, magazines that were once fairly understated about politics have decided to take a stand. Editors at top women’s titles such as Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire are ramping up coverage of sexual harassment, reproductive rights and identity politics. As younger American women use digital platforms to mobilize politically, these editors know they’ll have to meet readers where they’re most engaged. There’s a lot of money to be made there, too.

“The general public doesn’t understand the appetite women in America have today for all things politics, digitally,” Barry said in an interview at Condé Nast’s headquarters on the 30th floor of One World Trade Center. “I could not have picked a better year to come and work at Glamour—to talk to and with women.”

Samantha Barry of Glamour.
J. Quazi King/The New York Times via Redux
And she’s not alone, as the biggest name in women’s magazines lends credence to this industrywide shift.

“At a time when our world is so politically active, it’s only right that we should be as engaged and as vocal as our readers,” said Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour. “I've always believed Vogue—indeed, all Condé Nast titles—should really stand for something, and right now that’s more important than ever.”

Since the 2016 election, Americans have shown an increased interest in politics and demand for news. But when it comes to women, that thirst has proven unquenchable. Women of either political party are more likely than men to say they’re paying more attention to politics, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey. That’s almost 60 percent of women, compared with 46 percent of men.

Political involvement is up among women, too—particularly among those who are young and college-educated. Almost one in three women aged 18 to 49 have attended a political event or protest since the election, the Pew report shows. And a record number of women—a whopping 516—are running for seats in Congress this November.

Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire are looking to capitalize on this new landscape. They’ve all made political news coverage a priority, while some are hiring reporters with experience in political journalism and promoting their content aggressively on digital platforms. While cosmetics, celebrities and other lighter fare remain prominent, these magazines have staked a claim in the world of hard news.

“We can’t be everything to everybody when it comes to political coverage,” Barry said. “The two things we want to feature this year in our storytelling are how women are voting and how they’re running for office.”

how to run for office and started a “#VoteTwice” campaign encouraging them to vote in both the primaries and midterms. “Our ambition is to spur action, whether that’s running for office, registering to vote or going to the polls during the midterm elections,” said Editor-in-Chief Michele Promaulayko.

“Women are leading the resistance,” said Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List. “And women’s magazines have been invaluable assets in covering that story.”

The pivot toward more aggressive political coverage is also an existential imperative. Last fall, the top editors of Glamour and Elle (as well as those at Vanity Fair and Time) announced they were stepping down in the span of two weeks. Condé Nast subsequently cut dozens of jobs and decided to publish one fewer issue a year of Glamour, GQ, Allure and Architectural Digest. Ironically, the media group shuttered the print edition of Teen Vogue—the title whose sudden, unexpected political relevance established the template for what was to come. Meanwhile, Cosmopolitan’s parent, New York-based Hearst Corp., cut 130 jobs in January after acquiring Rodale Inc.

Magazine print-advertising sales in the U.S. are expected to fall a further 14.5 percent this year; the rate of decline is expected to exceed 20 percent by 2020, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, citing advertising-insights firm Magna Global. The U.S. magazine market, made up of consumer and trade magazines, will bring in $28.9 billion by 2022, down from $30.2 billion in 2017, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers forecast.

Cosmopolitan’s Michele Promaulayko.
Photographer: Evan Agostini/Invision via AP Photo
Still, as print sales continue to decline, digital traffic for glossies is skyrocketing. Overall, U.S. magazine publishers are estimated to grow digital circulation revenue by 3.6 percent by 2022, increasing it from $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion, according to PwC. The gain will push total consumer magazine revenue back into growth for a short period of time, but that’s not likely to last past 2020, when the decline in total consumer magazine circulation revenue is expected to resume.

Promalayko and Barry said the rise of digital is, in part, due to the success of their online political content.

With a print circulation of 14.9 million, Cosmopolitan is the best-selling young women’s magazine. Online, the brand drew an all-time high of 26 million unique visitors in May, and its political content has reached more than 3 million readers on the website this year, according to a company representative. Glamour, which has a print circulation of 8.7 million, has raked in more than 11 million unique monthly visitors and 5 percent month-over-month growth in total engaged minutes. The brand’s social platforms, which together total more than 15 million unique followers, have experienced similar growth this year.

Glamour’s exclusive interview with Cynthia Nixon, the former “Sex in the City” star running for governor of New York, drew four times as many total minutes spent than the website’s 2018 average. Meanwhile, a profile of black women running for office in Alabama saw 79 percent more unique visitors and 95 percent more minutes spent online than the average.

Indeed, by broadening their reporting to include politics, and especially issues important to minority women, big glossies are moving into territory that Essence and Ebony, magazines largely geared toward black Americans, have occupied for years.

“We’re seeing a more diverse representation in content,” said Amy Aronson, a professor at Fordham University and author of “Taking Liberties: Early American Women’s Magazines and Their Readers.” She added that “these magazines have historically been white-dominated, but there’s a greater push to reflect multiracialism and other forms of diversity.”

Source: Bloomberg.com

 

[Benn98]

CONTINUED...........

according to Pew. When it comes to young female readers, pushing political content on digital platforms is the not-so-secret ingredient for success.

Teen Vogue was one of the first titles to draw attention for having successfully reached young women on digital platforms during the 2016 election. Policy wonks and media junkies expressed surprise when an opinion piece, “Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America,” dominated the news cycle with more than 1.4 million unique views.

Teen Vogue has seen increased engagement, particularly with content on sexual health, reproductive rights and gun reform. More than one third of Teen Vogue’s top performing content in 2017 was under the “News and Politics” vertical, according to a company representative. The brand’s social media channels now reach 12 million. An op-ed on the post-Parkland teen gun-control movement became the top-performing Teen Vogue digital cover story of all time.

“Teen girls are so much smarter than anyone gives them credit for,” said Phillip Picardi, Teen Vogue's digital editorial director, in an interview. “We’ve seen an immense resonance of political coverage with our audience.”

Attendees at the Teen Vogue Summit in New York on June 1.
Photographer: Craig Barritt/Getty Images North America
While women’s magazines are moving to where they think the money is, analysts say digital has yet to prove a bankable savior. In the interim, the legacy glossies are looking to diversify revenue streams in untraditional ways. Cosmopolitan has launched a jewelry collection and subscription box service and partnered with Amazon.com Inc. to introduce Amazon SmileCodes to magazine pages, so readers can purchase items instantly. At Glamour, Barry said she’s working on building out brand “experiences,” such as the magazine’s annual Women of the Year award ceremony.

But while the magazines bet on digital via bolder, progressive political voices, some question their ability to avoid blowback from the right.

“In today’s moment—the Trump era, the #MeToo moment—a lot of magazines are going further to the left,” Aronson said. “Historically, it has always been the case that magazines that have reached younger women have been more progressive. And the digital magazine appeals to younger women.”

It’s true that some 70 percent of millennial women identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, a recent Pew report showed. But among all age groups, only 56 percent of women are registered Democrats, and 37 percent are registered Republican. And while the political behavior of white married women tends to be geared toward furthering husband and family interests, younger, single women are more likely to align with those of other women, showed a 2017 study from Oregon State University.

Barry said she’s committed to telling the stories of both liberal and conservative women. To this end, Glamour has hired local reporters in communities across the country to cover topics that include how the NRA has mobilized women or the experience of migrant girls at government facilities. “The onus is on Glamour to not be a silo for people’s opinion,” she said. She added that Glamour’s September issue will feature writing from prominent Republican women.

However, neither Cosmopolitan nor Glamour will compromise coverage advocating for women’s reproductive rights—an issue both magazines have championed throughout their histories. Schriock of Emily’s List, which has raised over $250 million for pro-choice Democratic candidates, said women’s magazines have functioned as a valuable asset in giving these campaigns visibility. Glamour’s Barry said that, when it comes to reproductive rights, her magazine’s position is non-negotiable.

“That is something we have a firm view on,” she said.

Source: Bloomberg.com

 

[Benn98]

Was this posted anywhere??

If Molly Malone is indeed innocent, and I'm assuming she is because why would she turn down a deal which would leave her with a slap on the wrist, then she should turn around and sue Grace for slander. As it is her reputation is in tatters.

 

[dodencebt]

Another Longtime Vanity Fair Editor Let Go Under Radhika Jones


SunHee Grinnell is out at Vanity Fairafter close to 30 years at the magazine.

She started at the title in 1991, when Tina Brown was at the helm, and stayed on throughout the tenure of her successor Graydon Carter, who left last fall and, according to The New York Post, took the internationally known “Best Dressed” list with him. Grinnell became beauty director in 2008 and remained in the role ever since, working to expand Vanity Fair’s beautycoverage in print and online and contributing regular articles. But it turns out the transition of Vanity Fair taking place under Radhika Jones, who took over in January after a stint at The New York Times and longer periods in editor roles at Time and The Paris Review, was one that Grinnell could not weather.

A spokeswoman for Vanity Fair confirmed that Grinnell was no longer with the magazine, but declined to comment further. Grinnell could not be immediately reached for comment. She seems to be the magazine’s sole voice on beauty, making it likely she will be replaced in some capacity since the industry is a key source of advertising revenue.

But Grinnell is only the latest in a string of changes to the VF masthead, which seems to have gotten smaller month by month. Naturally, Jones was tasked with cutting costs and editorial veterans tend to cost much more than new hires. Jessica Diehl, Vanity Fair’s creative director of fashion and style who had been on staff for 12 years, left the title earlier this year, as did fashion director Michael Carl, who’d been with the magazine since 2011.

Other cuts include the photography research department, which held two senior staffers, and in another blow to the fashion section, Ryan Young was cut from his fashion editor position. Writer Bob Colacello, a special correspondent since 1993, is also off the masthead, as is author Michael Lewis, a contributing editor who’s worked with the magazine for a decade.

Although there have been some hires, including Samira Nasir as executive fashion director and two new executive editors in Eric Bates and Daniel Kile, the cuts at Vanity Fair have certainly outweighed the additions. All the while, parent Condé Nast is moving toward a winding up of its two-year internal reorganization, which could see the closure of additional print magazines like W and rumors continue unabated that Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour is on the way out — although Condé strenuously denies them.

wwd.com

So many more staff changes at Vanity Fair, no wonder the magazine looks completely unrecognizable all of a sudden. I find this whole "let's replace all the experienced talent with people who demand less" thing very dangerous in the long run. It completely disregards employee loyalty and there is hardly any room for up-and-coming creatives to leave a lasting legacy.

 

[tigerrouge]

The prestige of Vanity Fair will linger for a while, giving the new team some degree of space to find their feet and become confident in their vision.

But cut too many corners and you undermine what Vanity Fair stands for, which does involve a degree of glamour and glitz. Sure, give the content an intellectual veneer - this magazine doesn't have a huge circulation, but it does have one that likes to think it's a cut above the crowd, so appealing to their intellect isn't a terrible thing.

But these people also have money, and if the magazine doesn't deliver luxury, Vanity Fair will slowly join the rest of the titles shuffling towards the executioner, because they've lost sight of their purpose.

 

[axiomatic]

wwd.com

So many more staff changes at Vanity Fair, no wonder the magazine looks completely unrecognizable all of a sudden. I find this whole "let's replace all the experienced talent with people who demand less" thing very dangerous in the long run. It completely disregards employee loyalty and there is hardly any room for up-and-coming creatives to leave a lasting legacy.

WWD needs a new copy editor.

 

[axiomatic]

Some interesting CN info from a loooong NYT article on Goop/Gwyneth Paltrow:

That issue, like the second issue (the one with a cover photo of her and Falchuk and the words “In Deep”), was $15 on newsstands and a product of a partnership with Condé Nast. At first, it seemed like a perfect fit. “Goop and Condé Nast are natural partners, and I’m excited she’s bringing her point of view to the company,” said Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s artistic director and editor in chief of Vogue, when the deal was announced in April 2017. The print product would be a collaboration — Goop content overseen by a Vogue editor.

It didn’t work out. “They’re a company that’s really in transition and do things in a very old-school way,” G.P. said. The parting was amicable. “But it was amazing to work with Anna. I love her. She’s a total idol of mine. We realized we could just do a better job of it ourselves in-house. I think for us it was really like we like to work where we are in an expansive space. Somewhere like Condé, understandably, there are a lot of rules.”

The rules she’s referring to are the rules of traditional magazine making — all upheld strictly at an institution like Condé Nast. One of them is that they weren’t allowed to use the magazine as part of their “contextual commerce” strategy. They wanted to be able to sell Goop products (in addition to other products, just as they do on their site). But Condé Nast insisted that they have a more “agnostic” editorial approach. The company publishes magazines, not catalogs. But why? G.P. wanted to know. She wanted the Goop magazine to be a natural extension of the Goop website. She wanted the reader to be able to do things like text a code to purchase a product without even having to leave her inert reading position and wander over to her computer. A magazine customer is also a regular customer.

But the other rule is — well, the thing couldn’t be fact-checked. Goop wanted Goop magazine to be like the Goop website in another way: to allow the Goop family of doctors and healers to go unchallenged in their recommendations via the kinds of Q. and A.s published, and that just didn’t pass Condé Nast standards. Those standards require traditional backup for scientific claims, like double-blind, peer-reviewed studies. The stories Loehnen, now Goop’s chief content officer, wanted to publish had to be quickly replaced at the last minute by packages like the one on “clean” getaways.

 

[Benn98]

Lol, Gwyneth really went into the CN deal with her blinders on. That much can be gathered. It sounds like she wanted a shoppable magazine, like Porter, which is fine. But CN wanted to turn it into a magazine first which for me make sense from a sustainable pov because otherwise Goop would just be another catalogue.
She's right in saying that CN is still very traditional. May be speaking under correction here, but I'm pretty sure US Vogue was one of the last magazines to build their digital presence.

I've read that there's more to this breakup than what Gwyneth is letting on. The quackery, for starters. Which CN wouldn't endorse without fact-checking. Gwyneth wants to run Goop like a website, and CN wasn't having it. Part of the reason why magazines have that legal/fact checking dept is because prior to the digital age, many print publications got sued over making false, unsubstantiated claims. What I've noticed to this day is that it's open season for quackery on the Internet. I'd be very surprised if there's a fact-checking department at Livestrong.com for instance.

 

[caioherrero]

The big question is who’s gonna be the new fashion director of Vogue? What are the rumors?

 

[Benn98]

Lagardère Sells Stake in Marie Claire Magazine

The French media group noted a 6.7 percent drop in sales of magazine advertisements year-over-year in the first half.
By Mimosa Spencer on July 27, 2018
PARIS — France’s Lagardère Group has added its Marie Claire stake to the growing list of titles exiting the group as it focuses on publishing and travel retail, marking shifts in an industry hit by the migration of advertising from print to digital channels.
The group has sold its 42 percent stake in the women’s title to its parent company, the Marie Claire Group.

Lagardère, which owns Paris Match magazine and publishing house Hachette, recorded a 4.4 percent rise in first-half revenues on a like-for-like basis, weighed down by a 1.5 percent drop in business at its Lagardère Active division, which houses its media business with radio and television channels as well as magazines.

In its results statement, published after the market closed on Thursday, Lagardère noted that advertising revenues in its magazine publishing activity fell 6.7 percent year-over-year.

The company had earlier this year announced plans to sell the French version of Elle magazine to Czech Media Invest, a large media company in the Czech Republic that is partly owned and managed by billionaire Daniel Kretínsky. The group also bought radio channels in Eastern Europe that had belonged to Lagardère for 73 million euros.

Lagardère’s agreement to sell magazines to Czech Media Invest includes the online version of Elle in France, as well as the magazines Version Femina, Art & Décoration and Télé 7 Jours.

Source: WWD.com

 

[Sensation]

NEW YORK, United States — Virginia Smith, American Vogue's longtime fashion and accessories market director, is taking on a new role at the Condé Nast title. In a Monday morning memo to Vogue staff, editor-in-chief (and Condé Nast artistic director) Anna Wintour announced that Smith has been promoted to fashion director. Wintour also confirmed that former fashion director Tonne Goodman and former executive fashion director Phyllis Posnick will become contributing editors after decades of leadership at the magazine.

Lisa Love, formerly the West Coast editor for the magazine, will be moving to a corporate role at Condé Nast inside the creative and event agency CNX, originally known as 23 Stories. Love's primary focus will be Vogue's events business. (BoF first reported the news of these changes in July.)

"[Smith] has an extensive understanding of the global fashion markets, deep relationships across the industry, and a keen sense of where fashion is going and which designers are at the forefront of that wave," Wintour said in the memo. "Virginia’s strong point of view on fashion, coupled with her enthusiasm and curiosity, will no doubt continue to create enormous excitement and interest as she spearheads our fashion shoots, and coverage across all platforms."

"Tonne, who has been Vogue's fashion director since 2000, has been the mastermind behind so many of our legendary covers and countless fashion shoots," she continued. "Phyllis has been a tireless champion of Vogue for more than 30 years, relentlessly pushing boundaries, and is responsible for some of Vogue's most brilliant portraits. I am so grateful for their enormous body of work, and thrilled they will both continue to be an important part of Vogue in the future."

Smith joined Vogue in 2002 from Calvin Klein, where she was the vice president of public relations.

-businessoffashion.com

 

[Miss Dalloway]

What!! Smith is just AWFUL!! UGh!

 

[Benn98]

Never even considered her for the job (it was very hard to picture ANYONE taking over from Tonne.) Isn't she somewhat under-qualified for this position? I hoped it would be someone new, with a fresh take!

 

[MissMagAddict]

Vogue’s Top Talent Goes Freelance
As print takes a back seat to digital, two of Vogue’s most influential longtime staffers are leaving their roles for freelance positions.

By Matthew Schneier

July 30, 2018

They are the most recognizable faces at any major fashion show. They fill out a prime block of the front row, one kept sacrosanct, awaiting their arrival. (They are unfailingly, unfashionably, on time.) They are the top editors of Vogue, which remains, to its competitors’ chagrin, the most powerful magazine in fashion.

They have been in their roles, in some cases, for longer than their assistants have been alive. At last, those roles have begun to shift.

Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, announced to her staff today that two of Vogue’s longest-serving lieutenants — Tonne Goodman, the magazine’s fashion director, and Phyllis Posnick, its executive fashion editor — will be leaving their staff positions and becoming contributing editors.

As well, Lisa Love, the magazine’s Los Angeles director and a major wrangler for the celebrity-jammed Met Gala, a 28-year veteran of the magazine, will shift to working with CNX, Condé Nast’s in-house creative agency.

Word of their departure was first published in Business of Fashion on July 13.

Virginia Smith, another longtime Vogue hand, will assume Ms. Goodman’s duties as fashion director. “I’m very happy that Virginia Smith’s promotion to fashion director recognizes her many years of hard work and dedication, and just as thrilled that Tonne Goodman and Phyllis Posnick, two of our longstanding — and outstanding — image makers will continue to work their magic in Vogue,” Ms. Wintour told The Times in a statement.

Everyone knows Ms. Wintour, as recognizable as Santa Claus, whose trademark look — that thickly fringed bob and those windshield sunglasses — is so long-established that it could more or less attend shows in her place. But any publicist with hopes of career longevity must know, too, Ms. Goodman, with her regular uniform of turtlenecks and white jeans, sensibly loafered; Ms. Posnick, dark-haired, never flashily dressed but never without jewelry; and Grace Coddington, the magazine’s creative director at large, who herself moved from a staff position to a freelance one in 2016.

Condé Nast, which owns Vogue as well as magazines like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and GQ, is consolidating staff with fashion and beauty “hubs” that work across several magazines and moving expensive, salaried staff members to freelance positions. Condé Nast expected $100 million dollars less in revenue in 2017 than it enjoyed in 2016.

Historically the company was known for free spending and the lavish, chauffeured lifestyles it allowed its top editors — providing clothing budgets and securing mortgages. Even the imperious Vogue has seen its budgets cut and its fortunes shift.

“One of the things that I quickly became aware of when I left Condé Nast,” said Tom Florio, the former publisher of Vogue who departed the company in 2010 and who is now the chief executive of the company that owns Paper, “is the pay scale at Condé Nast was easily double or three times what the market is.” (One former Condé Nast top executive, who was granted anonymity because he was not allowed to speak for the company, said he expected that Ms. Goodman and Ms. Posnick’s total compensation combined would be about a million-dollar expense.)

Ms. Wintour, the editor of Vogue and the artistic director of Condé Nast, has sat atop her masthead for 30 years this June. Sub-editors have come and gone. But the handful of top editors who work on the magazine’s fashion features — who put starlets in gowns and on surfboards for the all-important covers, who decide which trends get spreads and which are deemed “not Vogue,” who minister to the temperamental greats of fashion photography — have been in place for years. Ms. Coddington joined the magazine in 1988, one of Ms. Wintour’s first hires. Ms. Posnick predated Ms. Wintour by a year. The most recent arrival of this group is Ms. Goodman, who came in 2000.

“I think congratulations is in order,” Ms. Goodman said in an interview. “That’s the way I feel. But bittersweet is also the way I feel. It’s both. Vogue is so much a part of my DNA.”

Ms. Goodman made clear that she expected very little to change: Like Ms. Posnick, she will continue shooting for the magazine and attend fashion shows with Vogue.

“It was just time,” Ms. Posnick said over cappuccino at her home. “It really was. Tonne and I were the only two fashion editors in the world who couldn’t do other work.” (Their new freelance positions will allow them to pursue outside work.) She acknowledged that “it probably works well for Vogue, too.”

Ms. Goodman handles the bulk of the celebrity covers, as well as many of its fashion shoots, and in so doing, has quietly set the fashion tone of the magazine. Ms. Posnick focuses on the evocative, often surreal images that accompany the magazine’s beauty coverage, as well as some of its portraits. She is especially well known for her long collaborations with some of the greats of fashion photography, like Helmut Newton and Irving Penn, who for the last years of his working life would not collaborate with any Vogue editor but her. The walls and floors of her apartment are lined with photographs by them. (The Demarcheliers and Steven Kleins, she said, are at her home in Connecticut.)

In an era of personal brands, Ms. Goodman and Ms. Posnick have not pursued individual fame.

“Neither of them sought the limelight,” said André Leon Talley, the former creative director of Vogue. “But they were both passionate about their work. They were the connection to the golden age of magazines, steeped in the tradition of what an American fashion magazine should look like. It’s a species that seems to be going extinct.”

A look at the magazine’s September issues, its largest of the year, paints the picture: The issue has been slowly, but steadily, decreasing in size, dropping from its record-breaking 2012 issues, with 916 pages, to 856 pages in 2014 to 774 last year. The September 2018 issue is due on newsstands Aug. 14.

“As print shrinks, they need to rethink where they’re going to invest their money and what the brand’s going to mean to a new generation of people,” Mr. Florio said. “These people have had extraordinary careers. But it’s like a great film editor. If everybody’s doing things digitally, do you need a great film editor?”

Ms. Posnick said Vogue had neither pressured her nor asked her to contribute to its digital products, which she acknowledged was not her strength. “I wish I could,” she said, and that she hoped to explore them going forward. She freely acknowledged the landscape had changed over the years. Working with Irving Penn, she said, might take six weeks from initial meeting to the shoot. “If you rushed him, he’d say, ‘Let’s not do it,’” she said. “Those days are over.”

“Everybody can see every magazine changing these days,” Ms. Goodman said. “Vogue is not unique in this happening.”

Of particularly keen interest is the ongoing murmuring that Ms. Wintour may step down from Vogue or from Condé Nast entirely.

Those hoping to read today’s moves as tea leaves will likely find themselves stymied: It is as possible that Ms. Wintour is giving her longtime staffers graceful exits before her own as it is that she has perceived the need for change and evolution. The company remains steadfast in its denials that she is leaving.

“I am happy to tell you there is no truth to the rumors of Anna’s departure,” Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., the chief executive of Condé Nast, told The Times in April. A company spokeswoman reaffirmed Mr. Sauerberg’s comment today.

So for now, Vogue is evolving, but observers cautioned against expecting immediate changes.

Ms. Goodman and Ms. Posnick “contributed hugely,” said William Norwich, an editor at Phaidon Press and a former editor at the magazine. “As long as these people are contributing, going to the collections and going to the fashion meetings, I don’t expect to see that huge a change,” he said.

Vogue, he said, is “like the mafia — even if you’re out, you’re in.”

source | nytimes

 

[caioherrero]

Never even considered her for the job (it was very hard to picture ANYONE taking over from Tonne.) Isn't she somewhat under-qualified for this position? I hoped it would be someone new, with a fresh take!

I think she will never style any edits. She will play the role of Fashion Director like Rickie de Sole at W and Nicolle Fritton at Bazaar. She will choose the stylist who will do the job. So we will have a lot of freelancers at Vogue. I don’t like this, because I think the magazine lost identity’s. It’s sad.

 

[caioherrero]

Miguel Enamorado former Fashion Director of Interview is now at Harper’s Bazaar