By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 3/13 8:16am

Magazines

Anna Wintour

Anna Wintour Gets Promoted to a Position Created Just for Her

Anna Wintour will add the newly created role of artistic director of Condé Nast to her existing duties as Vogue editor and editorial director of Teen Vogue, the Times reports.  The position was created in part to keep Ms. Wintour at Condé Nast, and should put an end the persistent (and persistently debunked) speculation that the Obama-supporting editrix could decamp for a plum ambassador gig. Condé is expected to make the announcement today.  Read More

By Kim Velsey 4:24pm

Manhattan Transfers

The heir (a still from the documentary Born Rich).

Conde Nast Scion Si Newhouse IV Sells Tribeca Loft for $2.7 M.

As a child born into one of the country’s most powerful publishing families, it can be hard to escape from the shadow of one’s overwhelmingly successful antecedents. It appears that Samuel I. Newhouse IV didn’t want to be in the literal shadow of the family offices, soon to relocate to the World Trade Center, either. He’s jettisoned his trendy Tribeca loft at 55 North Moore Street for $2.7 million, according to city records. Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 10/18/12 2:17pm

Magazines

Anna Wintour and Sally Singer: together again.

Sally Singer, Back in Vogue

Sally Singer is heading back to Vogue in the newly created role of digital creative director, The Fix reports.

Ms. Singer left Condé Nast, where she was Vogue’s fashion news and features director,  in 2010 to become the editor in chief of T. But her two-year stint at the Times came to an abrupt end this past in August. WSJ. editor Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 10/11/12 2:22pm

Magazines

Carine Roitfeld and Anna Wintour in friendlier times.

Carine Roitfeld Heads to Hearst

Hearst Magazines has named Carine Roitfeld  the global fashion director for Harper’s Bazaar.  This move ramps up the rivalry between the former editrix of French Vogue and Condé Nast. Ms. Roitfeld, who was once seen as a possible successor to Anna Wintour, abruptly left Condé Nast in 2010.

Ms. Roitfeld introduced her new magazine, CR Fashion Book, just Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9/28/12 8:55am

Freaky Thursday

Golf For Women

(Very) Temporary Changes at Condé Nast

There was an hour yesterday afternoon during which the domain names of email addresses coming out of 4 Times Square were suddenly transformed. Staffers at Vanity Fair were alarmed to see their tony magazine title replaced by @golfforwomen, the name of a gender-specific sports magazine that closed in 2008.

Then the Vanity Fair staffers noticed that the glitch was more widespread then they thought. It wasn’t just Vanity Fair and it wasn’t just Golf for Women’s ghostly domain name. Other email addresses throughout Condé Nast were switched to the domain @fairchildfashion.com (a current, fashionable division of Condé Nast) and to the tech mag domain @wired.com. At one point, email addresses moved like a Ouija Board between @golfforwomen and @fairchildfashion. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 8/01/12 8:00am

Media

Illustration: Jason Seiler

The Sunset of Si: As the Conde Nast Chairman Fades Away, His Glossy Kingdom is Losing Some Sparkle

About six years ago, Tom Florio, then the publisher of Vogue, had an idea. He wanted to expand the fashion bible’s brand into a new platform: online television. The magazine’s discerning editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, approved and Mr. Florio found blue-chip financial investors who did too. He’d been working on the proposal for nine months when he presented it to Si Newhouse, Chuck Townsend and other top Condé Nast brass.

“I hate it,” Mr. Newhouse said.

Encountering Mr. Newhouse at a dinner party a few days later, Mr. Florio asked the Condé Nast chairman to elaborate on his abrupt dismissal of the idea.

“All that did was make money,” the boss told him. Read More

By Foster Kamer 7/25/12 3:21pm

MEDIA BRIEFS

fort_polio

Power Lunch: Is This Another Conde Nast Roman a Clef?

Who’s the character behind the latest bit of Conde Nast roman a clef? What does Barry Diller think of his newly-owned print magazine? What constitutes superficial beauty in a place as fundamentally ugly as D.C.? Did Malcolm Gladwell cause the recession? Does he wish he did? Who is producing the most powerful journalism of the day? And will Robert take K-Stew back? Today’s Power Lunch is brought to you by the Four-Cosmo Circa 2007 Michael’s Expense Account Lunch and Towncar Combo, and offers no real answers to any of those questions. These are your afternoon media briefs:  Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 6/20/12 8:30am

off the record

Sadly, money can't buy this look.

I’ll Have What She’s Wearing: Ecommerce Comes to W

Ever since print advertising went south and magazine companies started shopping around for a revenue plan B, the glossies have publicly struggled to figure out the ecommerce puzzle.

E-retail shops like Esquire’s Clad opened and shuttered, and flash sale partnerships fizzled. (Vogue x Gilt Groupe, anyone?) Shopping the magazine was an alluring idea—and doable in the age of the iPad—but it was complicated by the fact that the most luxurious were filled with price-upon-request pieces not meant for us plebes.

All that might be changing. Condé Nast’s arty fashion title, W, has unveiled a plan to juggle the dual new media mandates of “social sharing” and “e-tail,” and it’s surprisingly democratic. Read More