Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair since 1992, is finally walking away from what might be the highest-profile gig in magazine publis…
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Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair since 1992, is finally walking away from what might be the highest-profile gig in magazine publishing.
He will leave by the end of the year, the magazine announced Thursday.
“I’ ve loved every moment of my time here and I’ ve pretty much accomplished everything I’ ve ever wanted to do …, ” Carter said in a statement. “We built a magazine with sophistication, wit, and an international outlook, on a bedrock of solid journalism.”
Under Carter, the magazine’s efforts have included topics as diverse as a 2005 exclusive in which Mark Felt revealed himself to be “Deep Throat” and 2015’s Caitlyn Jenner cover story, which included her first post-transition photo spread.
“The Grexit is upon us, ” David Kamp said in a Vanity Fair essay noting the departure, which comes just months after Carter hit 25 years on the job.
The 68-year-old Spy magazine co-founder replaced Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown after the latter went to edit the New Yorker in 1992. Carter had been at the helm of the New York Observer for a year before he made the jump.
Since then, the magazine has in large part been crafted in his image — or at least in the image of his interests.
“I want to leave while it’s in vibrant shape, both in the digital realm and the print realm, ” Carter told the New York Times in an interview conducted a day before his exit strategy went public. “And I wanted to have a third act — and I thought, time is precious.”
He told his staff on Thursday, the paper said, and will give publisher Condé Nast suggestions on who might replace him.
Carter told the paper he will spend the next six months at a rented home in Provence. The paper listed Adam Moss of New York magazine and Janice Min of the Hollywood Reporter as talked-about contenders to replace him.
The Canadian native moved to the U. S. in 1987 and became a citizen in 2000. In the Vanity Fair job he has been, according to Kamp, “an impresario as much as an editor, a job description he essentially created.” Indeed, his Oscars after-party has been one of the most sought-after tickets associated with the Academy Awards each year.
The man who notoriously tagged Donald Trump as a “short-fingered vulgarian” years before the real estate developer became president also caused a buzz earlier this year when he yanked Vanity Fair’s involvement in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as well as its sponsorship of an exclusive after-party.
And as for next year’s Oscar party? Will Carter attend?
“You don’ t really need me there, ” he told the New York Times. “I’m like a glorified maître d’.”
