Radhika Jones shocked the magazine industry last week when she said she would be stepping down from the top job at Vanity Fair after more than seven years. Names of possible successors shot back and forth among insiders.
A question also swirled in the wake: Is it still a good job?
Once one of the most coveted positions in American journalism, the editorship of Vanity Fair for decades has held a sheen of sophistication and cultural sway, with seemingly limitless expense accounts and budgets for lavish photo shoots.
But as the magazine industry has contracted, many of the more decadent parts of the job are long gone, replaced with meetings about website traffic and new revenue streams. And that left people debating the current appeal of the position.
“The answer is an unequivocal yes, it’s a great job,” said David Granger, the editor of Esquire from 1997 to 2016.
“I wouldn’t touch that job,” said Farrah Storr, who left her role as the editor in chief of the British edition of Elle in 2021 to join Substack. Ms. Storr said she had become frustrated with the industry after rounds of layoffs and shrinking advertising revenue made it harder to put out a good magazine.
No doubt, there are few more prominent roles in American journalism than the editor of Vanity Fair. Some of the country’s top writers and photographers regularly grace the magazine’s pages, and its annual Oscar party remains a destination for celebrities.
Still, the debate since Ms. Jones’s departure is a sign of how much has changed in the industry. She told her team in an email last week that she had accomplished “virtually all” of the goals she had set for herself when she started in 2017, pointing to a highly engaged social media audience, a studio business putting out film and TV projects, and the events apparatus. Ms. Jones declined to comment for this article.
On Wednesday, Condé Nast, which publishes Vanity Fair and other brands like Vogue and The New Yorker, posted the job listing for the role. The editor in chief of Vanity Fair will now be known as “global editorial director” and will also oversee the brand’s four international editions. The listing said they were looking for “a visionary leader” who would “partner with colleagues in commercial, consumer, marketing, finance and other divisions to develop and execute a robust business strategy.”
Anna Wintour, the chief content officer of Condé Nast, said in a statement that the position was “an incredible job, one that requires an entrepreneurial spirit and deep belief in great journalism.” Ms. Wintour added that her preferred candidate would need wit, courage, connections, a global perspective and “a certain fearlessness.”
“They will need to break news and make noise — and have a little fun, too, whether that means with politics, Hollywood, the doings of reality stars or the billionaire class,” she said.
Many names have been floated within the industry as possible candidates to fill the role, including Will Welch of GQ, Sara Moonves of W, David Haskell of New York magazine and Janice Min of The Ankler.
Ms. Min, who made her name as an editor reinventing US Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter, said the job was now much less attractive than it used to be.
“You could cosplay a 1990s or aughts E.I.C. for a hot minute in your mind,” she said. “But then for talented editors, reality sets in. The fun parts of being a top editor are harder now to achieve in legacy media without a mandate to shake things up.”
Emma Rosenblum, a novelist and the former chief content officer of Bustle Digital Group, said the reality of the job would be “dealing with a decreasing budget, complicated Condé Nast politics, plus an internet that’s not going to surface any of your stories — thanks a lot, Google — and a young audience who doesn’t actually read long-form stories — thanks a lot, TikTok.”
Some former editors at Condé Nast still see plenty of promise.
“I still think it’s a great job for an enterprising editor,” said Graydon Carter, Ms. Jones’s predecessor at Vanity Fair, who edited the magazine for 25 years and burnished its must-read status.
Phillip Picardi, once a rising star at Condé Nast and now chief brand officer at WeightWatchers, said, “I can’t think of a more exciting gig in the magazine industry right now than Vanity Fair, to be honest.”
Tina Brown, who transformed Vanity Fair during her run as editor, from 1984 to 1992, said she was confident it could be done again.
“There are so few really wonderful jobs in journalism — it remains a good one,” she said.
Ms. Brown said the publication must continue expanding beyond just a magazine. But with journalism still at the core of the brand, Vanity Fair should also sign more great writers. “It does have some very good pieces still,” she said, “but I think it does need to get a real quality buzz going again, with exciting bylines joining.”
And maybe the job should even leave New York, she said, to better capture the outlet’s connection to Hollywood and celebrities. “Personally, I think that it should be based in L.A.”
Ben Smith, the editor in chief of Semafor and a former media columnist at The New York Times, suggested that maybe the question of whether the job was good or bad wasn’t the right one.
“I guess the question is whether this is a job managing legacy media decline,” he said, “or a job where someone can have some fun.”
