Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, the man who termed Donald Trump a “short-fingered vulgarian” long before he entered the White House and has presided for years over one of the entertainment industry’s most high-profile events—the VanityFair Oscar party— announced today his departure from the magazine. “I want to leave while the magazine is on top,” he said in an interview with the New York Times.
 Graydon Carter |
His tenure at Vanity Fair is likely to be remembered both for its high-octane celebrity coverage and its hard-hitting stories on political figures—particularly President Trump. A stream of pieces in its pages (including the editor’s letter in the October 2017 issue) have taken Trump to task and the President has responded with a series of Tweets such as “Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFairMagazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out!”
A film and theater producer as well as a magazine editor, Carter broke into the magazine business at Time, moving on to found Spy magazine and edit the New York Observer before being tapped to take over the reins from Tina Brown when she left Vanity Fair in 1992. He has helmed the Condé Nast publication ever since.
Carter, 68, leaves Vanity Fair as its publisher contends with an increasingly difficult print media landscape.
Parent company Condé Nast has unveiled a major reorganization, which led to many of its magazines experiencing a loss of their autonomy. (Vanity Fair, however, has been largely left alone.) This week, yet another round of editorial and business cuts at the company was hinted at in an article in WWD.
According to a statement from Condé Nast, Carter will help plan the 2018 edition of the magazine's Hollywood Issue before departing.
The announcement did not discuss any plans for the succession process. Two names seem to generating the biggest amount of buzz in publishing circles, however, as possible replacements: Adam Moss of New York and Janice Min, co-president and chief creative officer of The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group.
According to the Times, Carter has sketched out “the rough architecture” of a future project, but no details on that have been divulged, either. As far as definite plans go, he says he is planning to pitch an article to New Yorker editor David Remnick.
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