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Business Wars: Vogue: Once and Forever | Front Row | Episode 1 Summary
Podcast Overview Podcast Title: Business Wars Episode Title: Vogue: Once and Forever | Front Row | 1 Host: David Brown Description: This episode explores the rise and evolution of Vogue magazine, its key figures, and the competitive landscape of the fashion publishing industry in the 1970s and beyond.
Episode Synopsis The episode delves into the fierce competition among women's fashion magazines during the 1970s, focusing on Vogue as it faces new challengers like Cosmopolitan and Elle. With a backdrop of shifting cultural landscapes and economic recessions, the episode highlights the decisions made by magazine editors, particularly the influence of Anna Wintour and her predecessors.
Key Themes and Discussions
- Cultural Context of the 1970s
- Socio-economic Challenges: The 1970s brought a recession that shifted consumer interests. Working women sought practical fashion over the fantasy-oriented styles Vogue had previously promoted.
- Changing Attitudes: The feminist movement was gaining momentum, and women were increasingly rejecting the notion of media dictating trends.
- Vogue's Leadership and Strategies
- Hiring Anna Wintour: In response to competition, Vogue hired Wintour to modernize its image, indicating the magazine's recognition of the need to adapt.
- Historical Rivalries: The episode recounts the competitive maneuvers against Harper's Bazaar and the emerging Elle, which was gaining traction among younger readers.
- The Vogue Photoshoot Incident
- Machu Picchu Shoot: An anecdote about a Vogue photo shoot in Peru exemplifies the magazine's willingness to take risks for high rewards, despite the potential dangers and costs involved.
- The Rise of Cosmopolitan
- Protests and Pushback: The episode features protests against Cosmopolitan's portrayal of women, emphasizing the tensions within the feminist movement and the mainstream media's response.
- Helen Gurley Brown's Leadership: Brown’s editorial choices and controversies, including featuring the first male nude centerfold, illustrate the magazine's position as a provocative player in women's media.
- Comparison of Editorial Styles
- Grace Mirabella's Approach: Vogue’s previous editor aimed to make the magazine more accessible to working women, but faced critiques for not being trend-forward enough.
- Wintour's Vision: Anna Wintour's role as a disruptor is highlighted as she introduces a mix of high fashion with streetwear, adapting to the evolving tastes of readers.
- Impact of Advertising and Market Trends
- Advertising Strategies: The competition for ad revenue among magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Elle is underscored, with the latter two aggressively targeting younger demographics.
- Revenue Growth: Vogue's evolution under new leadership is tied to its ability to attract advertisers by redefining its editorial approach.
Noteworthy Quotes
- “If Vogue doesn’t keep up with the changing times, their longtime competitor Harper’s Bazaar, or a rising Cosmopolitan, will slip right into their prized seat in fashion’s front row.”
- "Cowan and the rest of the crew... watch the helicopter lift off and quickly disappear below the cloud cover."
Mental Health Discussion
- Resource Reminder: The episode includes a sensitive discussion regarding mental health, referencing suicide and providing resources for those in need.
Conclusion This episode lays the groundwork for understanding the competitive dynamics in fashion publishing, revealing how Vogue navigated challenges and transformations during a pivotal time. The contrast between the magazine's storied past and the demands of modern readers highlights the ongoing war in the realm of business, particularly within the fashion industry.
Resources
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
- National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264
This meticulous examination of Vogue's history and its competitive strategies provides valuable insights into the broader implications of business wars in the media landscape.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Just a note, this series contains references to suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, we've included resources at the end of this episode and in our show notes.
0:20It's May 1968 in the Andes Mountains, Peru. A helicopter touches down on a rocky ledge near Machu Picchu. The door opens and a woman's long, tan leg emerges. She's wearing a high-heeled sandal with crisscrossing leather straps that end mid-dye. A chain's small metal rings connected to the sandals glints in the blazing mountain sun. The pilot yells out to her. Keep low! Watch out for those blades! The woman is a model for Vogue. She and another model are here with an entourage, a hairstylist, photographer, and editor. The group trots away from the landing site in a low crouch. They look around them and wonder at the peaks that poke out of snow-white expanses of clouds.
1:06The photographer, a man named John Cowan, sets his camera case on the ground and turns to the Vogue editor. This is perfect, perfect. You get the hair and makeup done and I'll set up over there by the wall. The helicopter pilot climbs out of the helicopter and walks over to them. Like I said before, we gotta leave the mountaintop by five o 'clock. Look, it's dangerous up here after dark. There are wild animals who don't give a rat's a** that you're with Vogue. And if we stay later than that, the army search teams will assume we're stranded and come look for us. Believe me, you don't want to mess with a Peruvian army.
1:39The editor opens a makeup bag and rummages for lipstick. Don't worry. I don't want to be stuck up here after dark any more than you do. The models strike dramatic poses on the uneven mountain rock. They're wearing bohemian maxi dresses and draped in fringed llama wool shawls, suede fur-lined coats, turquoise beaded necklaces, and gold jewelry. Against the backdrop, they look as if they are floating on clouds, just as John Cowan envisioned when he pitched the location months ago. But at 5 p.m., Cowan still hasn't nailed his cover shot. He shoots photo after photo, shaking his head in frustration.
2:18Nice, fabulous. Yeah, like that. Now look over your shoulder at Machu Picchu, like a lover. Ha ha, yes, you're perfect. It's gorgeous, gorgeous. Hold. The helicopter pilot lurks nearby. Unable to contain himself, he marches over to Cowan and grabs the photographer's arm. Okay, that's it. We gotta get out of here. Cowan shakes off the pilot. He keeps shooting. Don't touch me again. I'm almost there. Besides, it won't be dark for hours. The pilot stamps his foot. Once the sun drops behind those peaks, night falls, the animals come out. I'm leaving now. You're on your own.
3:00He storms off and gets into the helicopter. Cowan and the rest of the crew watch the helicopter lift off and quickly disappear below the cloud cover. Oh well, I'm sure he's just bluffing. He'll come back to pick us up. But darkness falls, and the pilot doesn't return. The crew decides to head into the mountain forest, down a path they think will lead to a base camp. The models trip and slide in their high heels and furs. The temperature drops, and they begin to shiver. One model points to a little hollow in the ground nearby. My poor feet! I can't go any farther. Let's crawl up in that little dip over there.
3:40The group gathers some kindling and lights a fire. The models surrender their coats and they huddle together under the furs. Early the next morning, the Vogue editor wakes up and pokes her head out. Five soldiers glare down at her, furious. One of the soldiers roughly pulls her upright and points to the ground. All around their little resting place are dozens of mountain lion tracks. By the time the Explorer's photo spread hits newsstands in October 1968, It's rumored to have cost Vogue's parent company, Condé Nast, close to a million dollars. It's one in a long line of exorbitant high-wire acts in an industry known for excess, extravagance, and waste.
4:24But as the swinging 60s give way to the recession-blighted 70s, Vogue's fantasy-based vision of fashion no longer registers with working women, whose feet are firmly planted on the ground. If Vogue doesn't keep up with the changing times, their longtime competitor Harper's Bazaar, or a rising cosmopolitan, will slip right into their prized seat in fashion's front row.
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6:37From Wondery, I'm David Brown and this is Business Wars.
7:04In our new series, we track the highs and lows of Vogue, the world's largest and most influential fashion publication, as it defends its glittering reign over a global magazine market worth roughly$100 billion. For more than a century, Vogue and its parent company, Condé Nast, have squared off with rival Hearst magazines and more recently digital media interlopers like InStyle and WhoWhatWhere.com. At the heart of that battle is Vogue's editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, a larger-than-life figurehead who's been at the helm of the magazine for more than three decades and played an outsized role in shaping the fashion industry and its profitability.
7:45First, we're going back to a time before Wintour's reign. In its formative years, Vogue evolved from a small illustrated journal about New York's high society to a sophisticated women's magazine with international reach and influence. And under the control of cutthroat William Randolph Hearst, Harper's Bazaar spied on, stole talent from, and taunted Vogue every chance it got. By the late 60s, the excess of these magazines was jarringly out of touch. Now, at the dawn of the 70s, a recession is taking hold. Department store sales are in the gutter, and the glossies are hurting. Readers aren't reacting well to the media dictating trends.
8:31They want the freedom to decide who to be and how to spend their money. As the war in Vietnam drags on, the age of protest is in. and the trickle-down era of fashion is out. Or is it? This is Episode 1, Front Row.
8:57A bitter winter day in 1970 in Manhattan. The doors of the elevators in Cosmopolitan's reception area open and disgorge a dozen women. They're dressed in jeans and military surplus, like a ragtag band of rebels. Down with the patriarchy! Women of the world unite! Down with the patriarchy! Women of the world unite! The protesters rush into the magazine's small lobby. One woman walks behind the reception desk where a confused young intern raises her arms as if she's being held at gunpoint. The woman reaches past her for the phone and lifts the receiver off the hook. We're taking over the magazine!
9:36No calls in or out. Step away from the desk. Cosmopolitan's editor-in-chief, Helen Gurley Brown, strides into the cramped hall. She's wearing a leopard-print silk shirt, and her hair is styled in an elaborate updo. What is going on here? A dark-haired woman in a men's button-down blue Oxford shirt steps out of the clutch of protesters and walks towards Brown. The others follow in a pack. She wears a pair of oversized aviator-style glasses. Her name is Kate Millett, and Time magazine has just anointed her the leader of the women's liberation movement. Miss Brown, we are here to protest cosmopolitan sexual objectification of women.
10:20Your magazine oppresses women by featuring endless articles about how to please men and look like an artificial Cosmo girl instead of a healthy, natural adult woman. We demand you give over part of the magazine to us, so we can teach women to love and be themselves. Millet and her followers surge towards Brown. She backs up until she's pressed into a radiator against the wall. But she isn't threatened. This is nonsense. Have any of you even read the magazine? We are very pro-lib. You can be liberated and also dress well, but no matter what you think, no one occupies editorial space in Cosmo unless you can write well.
11:01And I'll be the judge of that. I'll read whatever articles you submit, but you have to leave now. In the next few issues, Brown runs stories on abortion and an excerpt from Millett's book, Sexual Politics. It's a peace offering instead of an apology. Brown continues to feature cover girls with deep cleavage, articles like How Girls Really Get Husbands, and fashion spreads featuring fur coats that infuriate both women's lib and animal rights activists. But less militantly feminist women continue to lap it up. And Helen Gurley Brown still has some tricks up her mink sleeve.
11:44It's 1972 in Los Angeles. Actor Burt Reynolds swaggers out of his dressing room in a photo studio in the Hollywood Hills. On his way over, he stopped at a liquor store and bought two bottles of vodka. One has already gone down the hatch. He's here to pose nude for a centerfold in Cosmopolitan, and he needs all the liquid courage he can get. He waves the rest of the second bottle at a nearby production assistant. It's colder than a witch's t*** in here. Somebody get me a glass for this. The assistant hurries off. Reynolds unties the belt of his terrycloth robe and drops it on the floor. He stretches out on his side on a bare-skin rug and props himself up on his elbow.
12:26He's 36, tanned, fit, and covered in a thick pelt of dark hair. He pats the bear's nose. Ha! I'm almost as hairy as this poor guy is. I need my pack of cigarillos for my robe pocket. And an ashtray, please. A camera assistant hands him his cigarillo. Reynolds clamps his teeth down on the cigar holder and grins. The photographer takes his place in front of Reynolds and tilts his head. He's done lots of covers for Cosmo, but his subjects are usually women. He considers his words carefully. Wonderful, Mr. Reynolds. Could you please rest your free hand between your thighs so that it covers your, well, the main attraction?
13:10Reynolds grins even more devilishly. He slings his arm in front of his chest and wedges his hand between his legs. The photographer peers through the viewfinder of his camera. Ah, fabulous, fabulous, just like that. Perfect. I can tell this won't take long. An hour and a half a liter of vodka later, they're done. The photographer knows he's got a shot that will make history. And Helen Gurley Brown makes sure it does. She splashes a bright orange banner across the bottom right corner of the April Issues cover. It reads, Cosmo's Famous Extra bonus takeoff. At last, a male nude centerfold. The naked truth about guess who?
13:56The issue sells out instantly. Clerks in some small towns keep it behind the counter or refuse to stock it at all. Women across the country tape the centerfold to their bathroom mirrors and college students put it up on their dorm room walls. By the end of the year, Cosmopolitan circulation is 1.7 million and advertising revenues rocket to 430 thousand dollars a month vogue's circulation and revenues are still flat but publisher cy newhouse is taking the magazine in a very different direction
14:39It's 1976 in downtown Manhattan. Vogue's new editor-in-chief, Grace Mirabella, sits with her husband at a dinner party in Andy Warhol's factory on Union Square West. Warhol's multicolored skull prints hang on the walls, and red votive candles shed a dim glow on members of the fashion elite like Diane von Furstenberg, Halston, and Bianca Jagger. Dazed models stumble past. Mirabella is 47 and wears a long, demure knit shirt dress. Compared to most of Warhol's bohemian guests, she looks like the headmistress of a girl's private school. She stabs a greasy, limp asparagus spear with her fork and holds it in front of her husband.
15:22This is just sad. Everyone's dying to get into Andy Warhol's factory, but if they only knew how awful it is. The food's inedible. Her husband points at his drink. At least the liquor isn't watered down. Everybody's toasted. Warhol freelanced for years as a graphic artist for Harper's Bazaar and Glamour before he became a famous artist himself. He always wrapped his artwork in torn-up brown supermarket bags, so they nicknamed him Andy Paperbag. Vogue staffers find it hard to believe he's a celebrity now, hobnobbing with A-listers like Mirabella and her tablemate, socialite and political reporter Marietta Tree.
16:01Tree raises her glass to Mirabella from across the table. She's quite drunk. Grace! Where are you from again? Honestly, Marietta, don't you remember? Newark. Newark, New Jersey. Tree's caught everyone's attention at their table and others nearby. She looks around the room in feigned astonishment. New Jersey! Can you imagine? The editor of Vogue is from New Jersey. Mirabella feels as if her face is on fire. She thinks about how someone told her that Warhol said Vogue promoted her because they want to go middle class. The East Coast elite look down on Mirabella's middle class roots. But indeed, that's exactly why she was chosen as the new editor-in-chief.
16:52She's determined to remake Vogue for 9-to-5 working women who happily buy American sportswear. Her redesign features articles from feminists like Gloria Steinem. It also features less coverage of high-society New York parties and more office-appropriate, wearable, affordable fashions. And it's a home run. By the end of the decade, Vogue's circulation more than doubles, and gross revenue nearly triples from$9 million in 1973 to$27 million by 1980. But designers like Oster de la Renta complain that Mirabella's fashion is boring, and Vogue still hasn't caught up with Cosmopolitan's massive readership of over$1.7 million.
17:38If Mirabella doesn't get with the razzle-dazzle and conspicuous consumption of the 1980s, Cosmo will push pedestrian vogue right off the catwalk for good.
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20:29It's a sweltering afternoon in August 1983 in Midtown. Vogue editorial director Alex Lieberman sits at his usual table in the grill room of the Four Seasons restaurant. He's a spry 70 years old, his once dark hair and mustache now white. He turns to his lunch date, New York Magazine's fashion editor, 33-year-old Anna Wintour. Miss Wintour, I thoroughly enjoyed your photo spread in the current issue. What a great idea to invite artists to create paintings inspired by the fall collections. Fabulous work. You know, it reminded me of the kind of pieces we used to feature in Vogue when we had geniuses like Salvador Dali guest-edit issues.
21:10Ah, you know, the magazine felt like a trip to a world-class museum back then. Wintour picks at her steak with her fork. She's decided not to wear her trademark oversized sunglasses for this all-important first lunch meeting with the man known as the creative force behind Vogue. She's on her best behavior, too. Before she landed the job at New York Mag, she'd been fired by Harper's Bazaar for being too headstrong, sexy, and fashion-forward. If she blows this opportunity with one of the most powerful men at Condé Nast, her career could be over. She ducks her head and looks up at Lieberman from under her long bangs.
21:51Thank you. Lieberman smiles at the seemingly shy younger woman in her red Dior suit with the trendy large shoulder pads. I'd like to see more of that kind of writing at our shop. Have you ever considered working for Vogue? Wintour puts down her fork. She's got a hunch Lieberman will like her dishy story about Vogue's current editor-in-chief. Actually, Mr. Lieberman, I met with Grace Mirabella two years ago, before I went to New York Mag. I think she found me a bit too... too direct for her taste. Lieberman picks up his glass of scotch and leans back in his chair. He's intrigued. Mirabella is as straightforward as a glass of milk.
22:33In fact, Lieberman finds her a bit too predictable. And the soft-spoken young Brit in front of him hardly seems pushy. What makes you say that? Wintour pushes away her plate. She's barely touched her food. Grace asked me what position I'd be interested in at Vogue, and I told her the truth. I said I wanted her job, of course. I wish I'd been a fly on the wall at that meeting. I can just imagine how that went over. But my dear, we need some fresh blood at the magazine, and I think we can figure out a way to ease you in without Grace putting up too much of a fuss. First, I want you to meet my wife at our place in Connecticut.
23:14We can talk more then. Lieberman is enchanted by Wintour's honesty, sense of humor, and air of mystique. He creates a new position at Vogue, creative director, just for her. His plan is to let the two women compete against each other for the top job. Mirabella is powerless to overrule him, and she'll soon be blindsided by an even bigger foreign threat.
23:50It's 1987 in Manhattan. Company chairman Cy Newhouse, Alex Lieberman, and Grace Mirabella sit at the long table in the boardroom of Condé Nast headquarters near Grand Central Station. At 60, Newhouse looks a decade younger in his casual khakis and polo shirt. He's still rather socially awkward, but he has the self-assurance of a man who knows what he's worth. Along with his brother, he now runs an empire worth upwards of$7.5 billion. But today, he sounds worried. We've got to come up with a strategy for how to deal with Elle magazine. They only launched the U.S. edition last year, but they already have over 800 ,000 subscribers.
24:35And with Rupert Murdoch's billions behind them, there's no telling how high that number will go. I see them as a direct threat to Vogue. Elle launched in 1945 in Paris and grew into one of Europe's foremost fashion publications. In 1985, French company Hachette Publications partnered with the media mogul Rupert Murdoch to put out a U.S. edition that is now catching on like wildfire, and every month adding more ad pages. The magazine's aimed at younger women, with features on chunky accessories, streetwear, and avant-garde designers. Its circulation and revenue already eclipse Harper's Bazaar. And now, it's catching up to Vogue.
25:17But Mirabella is calm. Sigh. We have a new record of 3 ,200 pages in advertising this year. More than any other monthly magazine in the country. Our readers are women of money and taste. Elle caters to the lowest common denominator, the MTV crowd. Not our market at all. It's trendy, cartoony, with almost no text, and full of jokey young girl models. It's so cute. It'll burn bright and then fade out when everybody gets tired of huge hoop earrings and neon pink tutus. Newhouse flips through some pages in a file folder in front of him on the table. Like the late Condé Nast, the company's founder and namesake, he's a big believer in research.
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26:04But Grace, this report says that Elle's readers are younger and more affluent than the average Vogue reader. Elle's position to siphon away our advertisers one by one. Lieberman has already decided. He wants Wintour at the top of Vogue's masthead. He sees an opportunity to pilot on Mirabella. I'm afraid I'm with Psy. We're vulnerable, Grace. I know you like sophisticated, minimalist fashion, but 20-somethings are wearing bright graffiti prints and tons of cheap necklaces and cone-shaped bras like a what's-her-name, that singer, Madonna. Everything's younger and faster and flashier now. You're aiming at women more like yourself.
26:44Stayed career-oriented types. And I gotta tell you, the book shows it. I hate to say it, but it looks tired. Mirabella gathers her notepad and stands up. She's clearly rattled. She really can't stand the shallow 1980s conspicuous consumption culture. I'm sorry, but I have an editorial meeting. I'll work on loosening up or lightening up or whatevering up the pages. But Vogue isn't Vogue if it's not classy. She doesn't know it yet. But Newhouse is even more enthralled with Wintour than Lieberman. Compared to Mirabella, the young Brit's the epitome of everything stylish and of the moment. And just like Cy, Wintour doesn't do small talk.
27:30In fact, she hardly talks at all. Meanwhile at Cosmo, Helen Gurley Brown barely has time to be threatened by Elle. Things are going south for other reasons.
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29:48It's a frigid gray morning in January 1988 in Midtown. Say no to Cosmo! Say no to Cosmo! Say no to Cosmo! Say no to Cosmo! 300 protesters from the AIDS activist group ACT UP march in front of the landmark Hearst Magazine building on 8th Avenue. It's six stories of sand-colored limestone, with an imposing Baroque arched entrance composed of fluted columns and statues representing comedy, tragedy, and other arts. Condoms, not Cosmo! Condoms, not Cosmo! Condoms, not Cosmo! The men and women are protesting an article in the current issue. It features a psychiatrist who makes claims about AIDS that are unsupported by medical research.
30:35The article's unfactual, medically flawed disinformation is causing backlash from nearly every corner of the culture. The marchers carry signs with slogans like, Don't go to bed with Cosmo and Brown stands at the window in her office and gazes down on the picketers below. An intern stands next to her. Brown's silky chestnut hair is teased into a trendy 80s big hair look. The locks rise high above her forehead and swoop down in large curls that rest on her shoulders. People call it the cobra. It's actually a wig. Oh, for God's sake, somebody's always protesting something we do. The young intern turns to face her boss.
31:21She and other staffers spoke up against the story at the original pitch meeting. I've heard that anybody can catch the virus, straight or gay. And even the Surgeon General disagreed with that shrink. He didn't back up those claims with any reputable sources. Brown smooths a stray hair out of her face. The statistics back it up. Hardly any heterosexual women have gotten AIDS. But the bigger issue is that I have fought my whole life to free women of fear and guilt, and now along comes this thing to scare the daylight out of everybody forever. We have to represent the other side. A week later, Brown goes a step further on ABC's Nightline.
31:58She tells anchor Ted Koppel she's quite comfortable if her readers conclude their partners don't have to use condoms. Even her closest allies cringe. Helen Gurley Brown's How to Keep Your Man Happy take on sex and the liberated woman is out of date. And so is she. Cosmo is reeling. But over at Bo, Wintour is rising.
32:39Late afternoon in June 1988 in Vogue's headquarters in Midtown. Editor-in-Chief Grace Mirabella's secretary picks up the receiver on her office phone and covers the mouthpiece with her hand. Grace, it's your husband. I'll put him right through. Mirabella picks up the line. Hi, Bill. What's up? I've still got a ton to do today. Grace, Liz Smith just announced on NBC's Live at 5 that Condé Nast is going to replace you with Anna Wintour on September 1st. Is that true? Mirabella's fussing with a bow on her high-necked silk blouse. Her hand freezes, and the fabric ties slip through her fingers and hang loose on her chest.
33:20Since Wintour joined Condé Nast, she's run British Vogue and House and Garden and seems to have botched both assignments. And at Brogue, a combination of the words British and Vogue, The staff refers to her reign as the winter of their discontent, and the press mocked her couture in celebrity-heavy remake of House and Garden, dubbing it House and Garment and Vanity Chair, a play on Vanity Fair, another Condé Nast title. Mirabella can't believe this featherweight could unseat her. I have no idea, no idea at all. I'll call you back as soon as I know anything. In a daze, she stumbles into Alex Lieberman's office.
34:01He's her direct boss at Vogue, but also a close friend. She and her husband have often spent time with the Liebermans at their home in Connecticut and visited them in Europe on summer vacations. He's sitting at his desk, doing nothing, as if he was waiting for her. Grace, I know why you're here, and I'm afraid it's true. I'm sorry I tried to stop it, but I'm just too old. Mirabella points a shaky finger at him. What's that supposed to mean? Don't go hiding behind your age or mine either. I'm only 59. I don't deserve this. When I started here, our ad pages were in the toilet. Now they're worth 80 million a year.
34:42Elle doesn't clear half that. And you don't even have the courtesy to tell me to my face? Lieberman shrugs. It wasn't my idea. I gotta tell you, I had nothing to do with it. And to be fair, I warned you that your endless covers of close-ups of models with perfect blush and perfect hair were just too predictable, and that you should have cultivated more of a relationship with Psy, but you avoided him. Anyway, you should go talk to him now. Mirabella turns on her heel and numbly rides the elevator back to her floor. She knows talking to Psy will do no good. She's never had any rapport with him, And he's famous for avoiding confrontations, too.
35:26He makes other people do his dirty work. And everyone at the magazine knows the tragic story of a woman who worked at Vogue for more than 40 years. She found out she was fired when she walked into her empty office one day to find it empty. Overnight, movers had packed it up and put all her things in storage. Not long after, she jumped out the window of her studio apartment to her death. And now, despite having tripled circulation and gross revenues during her 17 years at the top of the masthead, Mirabella is out, and Wintour, the quiet young Brit in Chanel suits, has finally got her dream job.
36:13November 1988. A printing supervisor stands in the middle of the factory floor and examines the cover of the November issue of Vogue. It's hot off the press. He's been in charge of the Vogue account for years now, but this cover looks like nothing he's ever seen. It resembles something his teenage daughter might read, like 17. He weaves his way through the plant to his cramped office in the back, picks up the phone and keys in the number for Vogue's production manager. Hey Joe, what's up? Everything okay with the print? I'm not sure. I'm calling to check we got the right cover. It looks like a mistake.
36:52I'm afraid we screwed up. It's so... Well, not Vogue. The cover photo shows a young woman wearing a$10 ,000 black silk Christiane Lacroix sweater emblazoned with a large, brightly colored bejeweled cross and a pair of low-slung guest jeans. She has wind-tossed messy hair, a toothy grin, and a bare midriff. It looks like a candid shot snapped on a city street. Headlines including Men, the New Himbos, and Fashion, Hope But Not Haughty, surround her in a blizzard of bold fuchsia print. It's Anna Wintour's debut issue. The high-low mix of designer fashion with mall brand denim and the eye-catchingly busy graphics could not be more different from Mirabella's spare close-ups of studio models with every hair shellacked into place.
37:46And the new design is a warning shot across Elle magazine's bow. It creates massive buzz. Cy Newhouse sends Anna a note that reads, You knocked it out of the park, Anna. I'm so proud. Wintour takes full advantage of Newhouse's goodwill to ditch staffers and photographers she considers out of fashion, including persuading him to spend nearly half a million dollars to buy out the remainder of Richard Avedon's contract. And she doubles down on youth and trendiness with a cover shoot featuring Madonna. It's a risky move in an age when fashion magazines rely on models rather than celebrities. Harper's Bazaar looks more dated than ever in third place behind newcomer Elle and a resurging Vogue.
38:36But they're also betting on a Brit to restore them to their former glory.
38:48It's 1992 in the Hamptons. Harper's Bazaar new editor-in-chief Liz Tilbaris kneels on the floor of her family's beach rental. She's 44, tall, and hardly looks the part of a fashion diva. Her blunt-cut hair is prematurely gray and she wears a size 14 dress, which the British press snidely loves to point out. The fashion industry at large stubbornly thumbs its nose at anyone who doesn't conform to a waif-like silhouette. The final proofs of Till Beres' first issue are neatly laid out in a grid on the terracotta tile. She points to the cover page at the top left and looks up at the magazine's managing editor and art director, hovering on either side of her.
39:31What do you think? Does it work? The cover shows supermodel Linda Evangelista, surrounded by white space. Her black, lace-clad arm is raised and hides half her face. Her palm playfully nudges the letter A in the word bizarre out of kilter. The only color is the bright red of her lipstick. The cover line reads, Enter the Era of Elegance. Tilberis' colleagues' eyes are red with exhaustion. They raced here from New York as soon as the proofs came in from the printer. They've put in weeks of 10-hour days assembling an all-star issue. It features articles on multicultural education and medicine's neglect of women, alongside first-ever photos of model Kate Moss in an American magazine, wearing edgy fashions.
40:20The graphic design of the whole issue is an homage to Bazaar in its arty, sophisticated, smart post-war heyday. A return to the bazaar that former editor-in-chief Carmel Snow called a magazine for well-dressed women with well-dressed minds, and which ran neck and neck with Vogue for decades. The art director places her hand lightly on Tilbaris' shoulder. Liz, I wouldn't change a thing. It's perfect. Tilbaris' career started at British Vogue when she won an internship in college. She worked there for over 20 years and succeeded Wintour as editor-in-chief. Now, she's taking everything she learned at Vogue and using it against them.
41:06The new Harper's Bazaar causes a sensation. But Bazaar hasn't bested their rival yet. Vogue is back on the top of the ad page rankings, with Harper's Bazaar in the number two spot, and L, which blazed like a comet for three years and then dragged during the 1991 economic downturn, placing in third. But new competition is brewing that will change the glossy game for good.
41:38It's 1994 in Midtown. InStyle magazine editor-in-chief Martha Nelson sits in her spare corner office in Time Inc.'s headquarters across from Radio City Music Hall. She's dressed in a simple black t-shirt and off-the-rack black pants. A former assistant managing editor at People magazine, she couldn't care less about clothes. She's in a planning meeting with an executive from Times Accounting Office, and her boss, a top editor at People. She picks up a pen and points at a line item on a spreadsheet on the desk in front of her. We need to raise the budget for the beauty editor. We can't go with the bottom dollar figure here.
42:15She has to be really good if we're going to compete with the big guns like Vogue and Bazaar. InStyle is a People magazine offshoot, and Time's first foray into fashion. Management is betting that their deep access to celebrities will pay off in the red-hot women's magazine market. Network anchor Katie Couric's haircuts are now treated like breaking stories in People. Her boss reaches over Nelson's desk and turns the spreadsheet around to see the figure. Yikes. Seriously,$60 ,000 isn't enough? And do you really need a whole editor just for beauty? What kind of beat is that? Nelson makes an effort not to roll her eyes at her higher-ups.
42:53This is what she's up against, at a shop that's never even covered Fashion Week. Trust me, guys. We need a lot of editors for things you never even dreamed of. I'm also going to need somebody who knows about CD-ROMs and this thing called the Internet. Seems like it could be big. Her boss looks at her blankly. Huh? The Internet? What's that? In the coming years, InStyle will be one of the first print publications to master digital. Its revolutionary fusion of insider celebrity news and street style will take the shine off all the glossies and threaten to steal Vogue's place as the glitzy belle of the fashion mag ball.
43:41From Wondery This is episode one of Vogue, once and forever, for Business Wars. A quick note about recreations you've been hearing. In most cases, we can't know exactly what was said. Those scenes are dramatization, but they're based on historical research. In this episode, we discuss the suicide of a Vogue staffer. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-273-8255. The National Alliance on Mental Illness is available at 800-950-6264. I'm your host, David Brown. Barbara Bogave wrote this story. Our producers are Emily Frost and Grant Rutter.
44:25Sound design by Ryan Potesta. Voice acting by Kerry Kavanaugh, Caroline Kinley, and Tessa Stokes. Fact-checking by Will Tavlin. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Our senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Our senior producers are Karen Lowe and Dave Schilling. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer-Beckman and Marshall Lewin for Wondering.
44:55I'm Raza Jafri, and in the latest season of The Spy Who, we open the file on Morten Storm, the spy who lived inside Al-Qaeda. Unfulfilled with his life in a notorious Danish biker gang, Morten Storm is lost. One afternoon he stumbles into a library looking for answers. He finds them in the form of a book about Islam. The towering ginger-haired Dane doesn't know it yet, but that moment will hurl him into a world of radicalism and see him rise through the ranks of militant Islamist organization, Al-Qaeda, only to suffer a huge crisis of faith. He turns from devotee to spy, tasked with rooting out some of Al-Qaeda's most feared generals.
45:35The CIA and MI5 bid for his allegiance as he loses himself in a life of cash-laden suitcases, double crosses and betrayal. Follow The Spy Who on the Wondery app or wherever you listen to podcasts or you can binge the full season of The Spy Who Lived Inside Al-Qaeda early and ad-free with Wondery Plus.
From the publisher
It’s the 1970s, and Cosmopolitan’s circulation is exploding. But just as Cosmo establishes itself, Elle magazine debuts in the U.S. and blows everyone out of the water with its vibrant take on streetwear and youth. Alarmed, Runway Queen Vogue hires a young Anna Wintour to give the mag a refresh. Meanwhile, Harper’s Bazaar imports an editor whose mission is to return the glossy to its post WWII heyday, when it ran neck and neck with its arch rival, Vogue.
In this episode, we discuss suicide and depression. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-273-8255. The National Alliance on Mental Illness is available at 1-800-950-6264.
Listen to Business Wars on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season. Unlock exclusive early access by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial today by visiting wondery.com/links/business-wars/ now.
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