Does a Changing of the Guard at Vogue Signal More Change Ahead?

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.)

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/style/anna-wintour-vogue-editors.html?partner=rss&emc=rss