Photo Cred: CONDÉ NAST
Vogue and Vanity Fair Fashionably Lay Off More Staff Members
By Patrice GillespieApr. 19 2019, Published 2:31 p.m. ET
Star pupils of the iconic Condé Nast Inc. Vogue and Vanity Fair, have made more cuts in the editorial department. Highly paid editors for both Vogue and Vanity Fair have been demoted to the likes of titles such as ‘contributor’ or ‘freelancer’ for a few years now when budget cuts were first instilled. The publisher of employees claims that the official number of employees that were laid off is “less than 10.” However, further investigation rebuts such statistics. Kali Hays, in her article for WWD, states that;
-“A spokesman explained that some freelancers were on the mastheads for a time for their work (and not under the contributor sections), and then cycled out, accounting for the discrepancy. Also, there is the “creative group,” which is a relatively new group of photo, art and creative staff that now sits separately from any one magazine but contributes to many and has had a few people from certain magazines folded in.”
“A spokesman explained that some freelancers were on the mastheads for a time for their work (and not under the contributor sections), and then cycled out, accounting for the discrepancy. Also, there is the “creative group,” which is a relatively new group of photo, art and creative staff that now sits separately from any one magazine but contributes to many and has had a few people from certain magazines folded in.”
Unfortunately, the mastheads for both magazines have plummeted. Vogue is down by 12 people, while Vanity Fair is down by 13. As if this weren’t a hard enough pill to swallow, in addition to cuts, many editors are leaving on their own; online and offline. Krista Smith, a Westcoast editor for the publication, left for a position at Netflix. Jon Kelley of Vanity Fair has left his position as founding editor of The Hive, leaving his successor John Homans to juggle Kelley’s position, along with his as executive editor; and for the same price. Even Edward Barsamian, left his position as style editor of vogue.com to work for Victoria Beckham’s brand as it expands online. With departures came more cuts in the creative and engineer sectors.
New hires have supposedly been made in the video and production department. However, there are still way fewer people working in editorial or full-time at the company. These unfortunate series of events are said to be addressed soon as new global chief executive officer Roger Lynch is set to take his position and assist with damage control.
