Condé Nast execs are pressured to retain advert {dollars} after Anna Wintour introduced final week that she is going to not oversee the day-to-day operations of Vogue, the posh model she has led as editor-in-chief since 1988.
Wintour will stay in her broader roles as Condé Nast’s chief content material officer and international editorial director for Vogue. And whereas it’s too quickly for the advert trade to report a change in manufacturers persevering with to promote or not, one company exec acknowledged to Digiday the burden of Wintour’s strikes: “[ad money] flows to Vogue due to Anna.”
Wintour has turn out to be synonymous with the Vogue model. However the style media panorama has modified since Vogue’s print-dominant heyday. Manufacturers are contending with shrinking referral site visitors, advert {dollars} are shifting to go looking and social, the creator economic system is booming, and generative AI know-how is curating style and summarizing content material in search engines like google and yahoo.
“Having [Wintour] step again from day-to-day however nonetheless overseeing issues is the most effective of each worlds. Vogue can nonetheless profit from her affect and connections however they will additionally infuse the model with new power,” stated a former Condé Nast editor, who requested to stay nameless to talk freely. “In the event that they play their playing cards proper, it might additionally sign to the promoting group that there’s one thing new and thrilling within the air.”
Condé Nast (and Vogue) aren’t proof against the shifting media panorama. Vogue lowered its viewers fee base to its advertisers up to now month from 1.2 million to 1 million, in response to an company exec, who requested anonymity. It now places the publication’s circulation at an identical degree of rivals like Elle and Harper’s Bazaar, they stated.
A Condé Nast spokesperson declined to touch upon this story. However they shared digital efficiency figures with Digiday, together with how its most up-to-date Vogue cowl that includes Lauren Sanchez Bezos carried out, claiming 1.6 million guests and three.4 million TikTok views.
Vogue’s subsequent editorial chief might want to have a extra platform-centric method to content material distribution and monetization, to proceed attracting an viewers that’s more and more much less inclined to come back to a writer’s owned properties, in response to a former Condé Nast exec. Meaning giving up extra management.
“Whoever comes after her subsequent goes to have extra autonomy to have the ability to take into consideration the evolution from print and web sites to third-party distributed platforms and AI, LLMs,” stated the previous Condé Nast exec, who requested anonymity because of their private relationship with Wintour. “The day-to-day content material creation and viewers technique goes to be run by any person else. However the aura linked with [Wintour], and the cultural gravity — I don’t suppose that’s going to go wherever for the foreseeable future.”
The creator alternative
Creators are more and more taking bigger shares of entrepreneurs’ budgets, stated Kim Harrison, group media director, connections technique at Fitzco. Vogue as a model has turn out to be extra influential than Vogue as {a magazine}, stated Tricia Logan, managing companion of world client & retail observe at DHR World, govt search and management consulting agency.
Being related to Vogue “nonetheless means one thing,” the previous Condé Nast editor stated. “Sure there are creators, however what do these creators need? All of them need to be in Vogue. That’s highly effective,” they stated.
That’s additionally obvious in how Condé Nast is promoting stock. “It’s not such as you’re promoting one deal throughout 5 [Condé Nast] manufacturers on Instagram. You’re promoting Vogue on Instagram, Vogue on TikTok, Vogue on YouTube,” the previous Condé Nast exec stated.
Condé Nast went by means of rounds of layoffs and cost-cutting final yr, merging Pitchfork into GQ in January 2024 and letting go of senior executives in December. Legacy media firms have pared again on spending executives had been as soon as afforded, beneath strain from audiences and entrepreneurs shifting to social and video platforms, and financial headwinds.
Nevertheless, the sheen of Vogue stays intact, in response to advert company and writer execs alike. That goes for almost all of Condé Nast manufacturers, stated one senior company exec at a holding group company, who requested to stay nameless in order to not seem to both disparage or elevate any specific writer. They imagine that Condé Nast, and Vogue, are well-positioned to faucet the creator economic system extra successfully than they’ve accomplished to this point.
“Anybody writing for {a magazine} [like theirs] is influencing tradition. And people [writers] are sought-after expertise on this new world the place creators and influencers are tremendous essential,” stated the company exec. “However I don’t suppose they’ve leveraged it practically to the diploma that they need to have. There’s been ways in which they’ve been in a position to monetize it in small methods, however, like, not scalable. I believe there’s work to be accomplished there,” they stated.
The hiring of Elizabeth Herbst-Brady as chief income officer at Condé Nast — having led income and promoting groups at tech firms like Verizon, Snap, Viacom and Yahoo — final yr signaled the media group’s intention to shift gears, the exec added. “That, plus the entry they’ve — whether or not it’s Hollywood expertise, you possibly can go throughout the board — these manufacturers are nonetheless adored. And so they’ve received the eye of pockets of influencers, it doesn’t matter what property we’re speaking about. With Anna altering roles, I believe it is going to assist folks reimagine it on this new approach.”
Wintour’s transfer hasn’t spurred a notable ripple impact amongst advertisers — at the least not but. Vogue’s grasp on the posh market stays sturdy. Vogue continues to be priceless for advertisers in search of a protected, trusted surroundings and to achieve an viewers concerned about luxurious manufacturers, two company execs instructed Digiday.
However these advert {dollars} are intertwined with Wintour. With Wintour nonetheless on the helm, it’s unlikely a brand new Vogue editorial chief could have a very totally different imaginative and prescient from their predecessor. And possibly that’s the purpose.
“It’s laborious to separate the 2,” Logan stated.
—Jessica Davies, Digiday senior media editor, contributed to this story.
