Who Wants to Run Vanity Fair? Everyone? Anyone?

Radhika Jones shocked the magazine industry last week when he said it would be You choose From the best work of Vanity Fair after more than seven years. The names of the possible successors fired back and forth among the insiders.

A turbine question also in the wake: it is still a Well Work?

Once one of the most coveted positions in American journalism, the direction of vanity proud for decades has held a shine of refinement and cultural domain, with accounts and budgets of apparently unlimited expenses for sumptuous photo shoots.

But when the magazine industry has contracted, many of the decadent parts of the work have been passed for some time, replaced with meetings on the traffic of the website and on the new revenue flows. And this left the people who discussed the current use of the position.

“The answer is an unequivocal yes, it is an excellent job,” said David Granger, The publisher of Esquire from 1997 to 2016.

“I wouldn’t touch that job,” said Farrah Storr, who left his role as the chief publisher of the British edition of Elle in 2021 to join Scadack. Mrs. Storr said she was frustrated by industry after rounding of layoffs and that advertising revenue has reduced to become more difficult to publish a good magazine.

Without a doubt, there are few more important roles in American journalism compared to the publisher of Vanity Fair. Some of the best writers and photographers of the country regularly embellish the pages of the magazine and its annual Oscar party remains a destination for celebrities.

However, the debate from the departure of Mrs. Jones is a sign of what has changed in the sector. He told his team in one and -mail last week that he made “practically everything” of the goals he had prepared for herself when she started In 2017, indicating a highly involved social media audience, a study company that publishes cinematographic and television projects and the events apparatus. Mrs. Jones refused to comment on this article.

Wednesday, Condé Nast, who publishes Vanity Fair and other brands such as Vogue and The New Yorker, published the Work list For the role. The chief editor of Vanity Fair will now be known as “Global Editorial Director” and will also supervise the four international editions of the brand. The list declared that he is looking for “a visionary leader” that “collaborated with colleagues in traders, consumers, marketing, finance and other divisions to develop and perform a solid corporate strategy”.

Anna Wintour, the Chief Content Officer of Condé Nast, said in a declaration that the position was “an incredible job, which requires an entrepreneurial spirit and a profound conviction in great journalism”. Mrs. Wintour added that her favorite candidate would need witness, courage, connections, a global perspective and “a certain fearlessness”.

“They will have to break news and make noise – and also have fun, whether this means with politics, Hollywood, the actions of the stars of reality or the billionaire class,” he said.

Many names have been floated in the sector as possible candidates to play the role, including Will Welch of GQ, Sara moves of W, David Haskell of New York Magazine and Janice Min by Ankle.

Mrs. Min, who made her name as an publisher reinventing US Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter, said that the work was now much less attractive than it was.

“You could cosplay in 90s or EICs for a hot minute in your mind,” he said. “But then for talented editors, reality begins. The fun parts of being a high -level publisher are now more difficult to reach in the Legacy media without a mandate to shake things.”

Emma Rosenblum, a writer and former director of the content of the Bustle digital group, said that the reality of the work would be “to face a decreasing budget, complicated the Condé Nast policy, as well as an internet that will not bring out any of your thousand-of-grazes, Google-and a young audience that actually does not read stories of Mille length, Tiktok.”

Some former editors of Condé Nast still see many promises.

“I still think it’s a great job for an enterprising publisher,” he said Graydon CarterMrs. Jones’ predecessor at Vanity Fair, who oversaw the magazine for 25 years and brown her reading status not to be missed.

Phillip Picardi, Once a nascent star At the Condé Nast and now Chief Brand Officer of Weightwatchers, he said: “I can’t think of a more exciting concert in the magazine sector at this moment than Vanity Fair, to tell the truth.”

Tina Brownwho transformed Vanity Fair during his race as editor, from 1984 to 1992, said he was confident that he could be done again.

“There are so few truly wonderful jobs in journalism: it remains good,” he said.

Mrs. Brown said that the publication must continue to expand beyond a magazine. But with journalism still at the center of the brand, Vanity Fair should also sign larger writers. “He still has very good pieces,” he said, “but I think he needs to get a buzz of real quality, with exciting signals that come together.”

And perhaps the work should even leave New York, he said, to better capture the bond of the outlet with Hollywood and celebrities. “Personally, I think it should be based on Los Angeles”

Ben Smith, chief of Day of Semafor and former media publishing at the New York Times, suggested that perhaps the question if the work was good or bad was not the right one.

“I guess the question is if this is a job that manages the decline of the Legacy media,” he said, “or a job in which someone can have fun.”