But this year, Ms. Wintour, the editor of Vogue — a fashion fetish object and business juggernaut — gave Milan a hug. On Wednesday night, she held a party at La Scala, the famed opera house — hosting an Italian cousin to the extravagant Met gala, which she is also in charge of back in the United States. Joining her to let Milan know it still mattered was Jonathan Newhouse, the chairman of Condé Nast International and one of the heirs to the family company, Advance Publications, which owns Condé Nast.
Charles Townsend, the chief executive of Condé Nast, was there as well. Oh, and so was David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker; Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair; Stefano Tonchi, the editor of W; and Jim Nelson, the editor of GQ. Editors from Glamour, Allure, Bon Appétit, Teen Vogue, Lucky and Style.com also came.
Given the belt-tightening libretto of the magazine industry, the fete was an awesome display of her powers, both in fashion at large and, more to the point, at Condé Nast.
Ms. Wintour has always been a big deal — fashion houses seek her favor, retailers her advice and politicians her attention — but her influence within Condé Nast is now on the march in ways that are not just reshaping the magazines but the editorial structure within the organization. Five high-ranking newsroom employees told me that the new order is both not up for discussion — no one at the company wants to risk offending Ms. Wintour — and all anyone is talking about. They worry that the Condé way is becoming the Wintour way, leaving some in the organization feeling endangered.
The editor of Vogue since 1988, Ms. Wintour, a 63-year-old London native, was named artistic director of Condé Nast in March. The role gives her permission to roam over other magazines in the building, especially ones that are viewed as troubled or dated. She is a kind of in-house consultant thought to have the wizard’s touch and her advice can either be sought, or delivered.
Her appointment makes it clear that the people who run the company are not content to let its more challenged publications drift into unprofitability. Ms. Wintour’s obvious skills, relationships with advertisers and success made her the best candidate to help stem the slide.
And it’s not as if she lacks other options. A friend of President Obama and a reliable fund-raiser for him, she was reportedly under consideration for an ambassadorship, a possibility that sent shivers through the executive corridors of Condé Nast. Mr. Townsend said frankly when he made the appointment: “I would go to great distances to avoid losing Anna, particularly in the prime of her career.”
When I called him, he was just as frank about another reason for her appointment. Ms. Wintour is filling the hole left by S. I. Newhouse Jr., who at 85 still comes to work regularly and but is far less involved in the operation. “Condé Nast has always had an extraordinary creative leader, someone who wields influence in publishing, media and business,” he said. “It is her moment right now. Anna is the biggest talent we have, maybe the biggest in the business, and I am going to play that card for all it’s worth.”
While Ms. Wintour has kept a respectable distance from Mr. Remnick and Mr. Carter, the other members of the company’s power troika, she has landed hard on magazines that are seen as business laggards.
In August, Klara Glowczewska, the editor of Condé Nast Traveler who had been with the magazine since its inception in 1987, was moved out, replaced by Pilar Guzmán. Ms. Wintour was deeply involved in the switch and remains deeply involved in the magazine.
Lucky also underwent a makeover. A shopping magazine built on the fashion sensibilities of younger women, it has struggled for years, and Brandon Holley, a well-regarded digital and publishing executive, was hired in 2010 to help right the once-flourishing magazine. But while Lucky’s Web site did well, newsstand sales — a measure of reader interest — were off more than 21 percent in the year ending in June 2013.
Ms. Holley found herself, in effect, replaced in place, when Eva Chen, a Wintour favorite who had worked at Teen Vogue, was brought in to consult. All pages of the magazine were run past Ms. Wintour, and she began to both handpick the fashions and the photographers for the magazine. After a couple of untenable months, Ms. Holley was fired in June, replaced by Ms. Chen.
Since Ms. Wintour has become de facto editor of Lucky, the magazine has become Vogue-ified. Women not shaped like supermodels, once a staple of Lucky’s pages, are now banished. The cover of the October issue, shot by the Vogue stalwart Patrick Demarchelier, features Eva Mendes, a remarkable-looking person who has very little in common with the girl next door
Now Ms. Wintour is turning her attention to Glamour, which has lost over 28 percent of its newsstand sales in the year ending in June, and perhaps other magazines as well. According to a magazine executive at a competing company with direct knowledge of the discussions, a creative director at his company was approached about working in a similar role for Glamour, and told that the post would report to Ms. Wintour, not Cindi Leive, the magazine’s editor. (Mr. Townsend acknowledged the discussions, but said the reporting line detail was “dead wrong.”)
Apart from making for a more difficult workplace, the situation violates a history of creative independence at Condé Nast. Now, a magazine belongs to its editor until it does not.
E-mail: carr@nytimes.com;
Twitter: @carr2n
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/business/media/wintours-reign-extends-beyond-vogue.html?partner=rss&emc=rss