Vogue: Once and Forever | Red Ink | 3

0:07It's early evening in December 1995 in Manhattan. Anna Wintour and a Vogue copywriter stand in front of a huge Christmas tree in the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tree is made up entirely of blood-red roses. This is Wintour's first time hosting the Met Gala. The legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland retired from the job in 1987. Now the museum is banking on Wintour to bring back the models, artists, glitterati, and deep-pocketed celebrities who flock to Vreeland's fanciful extravaganzas. Wintour's wearing a sleeveless, white satin column dress by Oscar de la Renta, with matching gloves that extend past her elbows.

0:50She points at a rose not far from the top of the 18-foot tree. That one pops out to the left a bit too much. Fix it. The Vogue copywriter's eyes open wide in alarm. The first guests are due to arrive in half an hour. She's only working the event because Wintour banished the usual Met staffers after she deemed them not attractive enough. The copywriter's afraid of heights and has no idea whether the Met has a ladder tall enough to reach the offending bloom. But no one ever says no to Anna Wintour. The copywriter scurries off to find help. Thirty minutes later, Wintour makes her grand entrance up the Met's famous granite steps.

1:34Supermodel Naomi Campbell glides up the staircase in shimmery silver Versace, followed by Kate Moss in a slinky yellow number from Calvin Klein. After them comes a long string of models, designers, and members of New York's Glitterati. They mingle in the hall around the tree with its now perfectly aligned roses. A met board member tosses back a glass of champagne and winces. Ugh, that is not a thousand dollar ticket quality. And Anna may have packed the place with big names, but I've seen better crowds. Remember when I met Jackie O at one of these galas? She had me take her through the whole first floor.

2:14The board member points to a man wearing a dress shirt held together by safety pins. The man's black mustache is waxed into long points. I thought Vogue was classier than this. After the A-listers eat dinner, more guests arrive. The tickets for late arrival only cost$150. Later in the evening, the second-tier guests spill over the edges of a small dance floor in the museum's Temple of Dendor exhibit. It's a 2 ,000-year-old Egyptian temple fronted by a moat that represents the Nile River. The liquor flows all night. A young woman reels away from the dancers who drops to her knees on the edge of the moat and boots her champagne into the Nile.

2:59It's an inauspicious beginning for Wintour as the next reigning queen of the Met Gala. The Met bristles at her guests' debauchery in Wintour's bossy manner. The next year, they invite her arch-rival, Liz Tilbaris, to host. Tilbaris is the editor-in-chief of white-hot Harper's Bazaar. And joining her as guest of honor is her close friend, the celebrity of the century, Princess Di. The ultra-glamorous decorous event honoring Christian Dior generates global buzz for the already surging magazine. Classy Bazaar and savvy newcomer InStyle magazine are ready to usurp Wintour's throne.

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5:50From Wondery, I'm David Brown and this is Business Wars.

6:15It's the mid-1990s, and cable television is revolutionizing media, bringing celebrity fashion to viewers in more immediate and intimate ways than ever. MTV and shows like Extra and Entertainment Tonight reveal rappers and movie stars' outfits long before magazines like Vogue arrive at people's doorsteps or local newsstands. But the biggest menace to all the glossies is just now emerging from its shell. And when the internet takes wing, it will threaten to leave the lead-footed print media outlets far behind, gray, gaunt, and gasping for relevance. This is Episode 3, Red Ink.

7:02It's February in 1999 in New York's Grand Central Terminal. Broadway actor Alan Cummings struts down a brilliantly illuminated white runway at one end of the historic station's Grand Hall. Most of the terminal's lights are turned off to heighten the drama. Cumming is the surprise celebrity guest of designer Cynthia Rowley's fall show. He's bare-chested, and a dozen tiny gel-stiffened ponytails stick straight up all over his head like a demented mohawk. Another model catches up with him, and Cumming opens his bright orange wraparound skirt to cinch it around both their hips. Alan, we love you! Like that!

7:42Let's do it! Yeah! The men walk arm-in-arm back up the catwalk. Floodlights wash the marble walls with columns of red and purple from the tile floor to the ceiling mural of the starry sky. Fashion editors and A-listers watch stony face from rows of folding chairs. Paparazzi flashbulbs strafe the crowd. At the other end of the terminal, commuters and tourists crisscross the hall. A suburban couple in matching L.L. Bean jackets descend the station's staircase entrance and walk toward the central information kiosk. The woman points to the huge video screens that flank the train departure board. They're playing a live feed of the fashion show.

8:24Look, isn't that Alan Cumming? We're going to see him tomorrow in Cabaret. The man squints at the screens. Is that a fashion show? Why the hell is it so dark in here? More and more passers-by are confused. InStyle sponsored this runway show and chose Grand Central so they could use live video coverage of the event in an iconic New York space. It's a groundbreaking use of a technique already appearing in pro sports, but not yet common in fashion. InStyle's innovative focus on celebrity lifestyle coverage, plus tech-savvy marketing, is disrupting fashion media. After its debut in 1994, the magazine doubled its ad revenues to$53 million between 1996 and 1997.

9:12Since then, circulation has nearly doubled as well. Vogue still dwarfs newcomer in style as well as legacy glossies Elle and Harper's Bazaar. And in 2000, it's one of the earliest fashion magazines to launch a website. Wintour livestreams Chanel's resort collection. Customers are thrilled to be able to pre-order styles the same day. It's an early see-now-buy-now moment in the fledgling digital age. Vogue is catching on to the new world of online fashion. But not quite fast enough.

9:53It's a balmy night in June 2001 in Beverly Hills. The wedding reception of Melrose Place actress Kelly Rutherford to Venezuelan banker Carlos Tarajano is going strong in the sunset ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Huge garlands of white Casablanca lilies decorate the pink and cream-colored walls of the Oval Event Space. Nearly a hundred guests sidestep, swing, spin, and sway their hips to the salsa beat across the dance floor. The dancers disperse just as waitstaff rolls a cart carrying a four-tiered white wedding cake right into the middle of the room.

10:36Rutherford wears a white strapless Carolina Herrera gown with a crystal-embroidered bodice and long train. She picks up the cake cutter. The groom puts his arm around her and places his hand over hers on the knife. They both freeze with a knife hovering over the cake and smile at an InStyle magazine photographer. He captures the scene, and they turn back to the cake. They feed each other a forkful of the first slice. The groom wipes icing from Rutherford's cheek.

11:08I love you forever, Kelly.

11:13It's a picture-perfect moment in a picture-perfect wedding, and InStyle is there to cover it for their upcoming celebrity wedding edition. When the issue hits the stand seven months later, Rutherford has already filed for divorce. It's happened so many times in the magazine's short history that it's been dubbed the curse of the InStyle wedding. The marriages may not last, but InStyle's stellar sales and success have. In 2001, InStyle surpasses Vogue for the first time in ad pages and revenues. Their breezy take on accessible style filters fashion through the lens of pop culture, instead of high society and arty layouts.

11:57InStyle also heaps on a big dollop of celebrity watching. By showing stars in their homes, sorting through their closets and shopping for shoes, InStyle humanizes them, rather than putting them on a pedestal the way Vogue and Harper's Bazaar do. And it's the first glossy with fashion pages style-like shopping catalogs, complete with toll-free telephone numbers readers can use to access stores directly. InStyle's shopping editorial is so popular, it prompts Condé Nast to launch a copycat magazine called Lucky. For nearly everyone else, though, the first half of 2001 is a bad year. Harper's Bazaar's 622 ad pages barely reach the halfway mark of Vogue's, and newsstand sales are flat.

12:48Two years earlier, Harper's Bazaar's star editor-in-chief Liz Tilbaris died of ovarian cancer, and the magazine has been floundering ever since. Even Vogue finishes the year with ad pages down 30%. It's up to Wintour to transform Vogue. or in style, will make the magazine look about as in vogue as a powdered wig.

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16:11It's 2006 in Times Square. Vogue publisher Tom Florio sits at a conference table in Condé Nast headquarters with chairman Cy Newhouse and several top execs. He's come straight from a stint at GQ and looks the part. His curly, dark hair is styled in a perfectly tussled mop on top of his head. For the past nine months, Florio's been working on a proposal to expand Vogue into online video. Now, he's finally presenting it to the top brass. He picks up a clicker to play the next snippet of his presentation. I have an appointment with Emily Charlton. Andrea Sachs. Yes? Great. Human resources certainly has a nonsense of humor.

16:56Follow me. Okay,

17:03mode. Get ready for Betty. Betty. Betty. Betty. Betty, Betty, Betty. This is Project Runway. Of course I'm with this. Let's do this. The search for the next big fashion designer. As you can see from that montage I just played, There's a huge appetite for fashion as entertainment right now. As you can see, there are so many popular programs that involve the industry. The movie The Devil Wears Prada, of course. Also, ABC's Ugly Betty, and then reality shows like Project Runway and America's Next Top Model. The younger demographic is streaming clips of these shows on YouTube. All the audience data is in the report I emailed you yesterday.

17:45This is the perfect time to expand the Vogue brand by, for instance, producing our own video series for the website or creating our YouTube videos. A Conde Nast branding exec jumps in. Tom, is Anna on board with this? She doesn't think it'll dilute the brand? And, word to the wise, I wouldn't talk to her about the Devil Wears Prada. She wasn't too thrilled about that. Florio fiddles with his gold tie clip. He's unnerved by the gaffe, but most of all, he's worried about Cy Newhouse's silence. Yeah, I was careful not to mention that to Anna. She's as worried as the rest of us about InStyle's head start on this kind of catchy fashion first video.

18:29We've even floated some ideas by her like before and after makeover videos or a fashion icon chat show. Florio's a straight shooter, and he knows that Newhouse respects him for it. Best to be direct. So, Cy, what do you say about this online video gambit? Newhouse slumps in his leather-swiveled desk chair, one elbow propped on the chair arm, his chin resting in his palm. He's 78, portly, and wearing an ancient New Yorker sweatshirt. With age, he's grown into his detractor's nickname for him, the Frog Prince. He picks up a paper copy of the meeting agenda from the table, scrunches it up and tosses it over his shoulder in the vague direction of a waste paper basket.

19:15I hate it. The blood drains from Florio's ruddy face. He looks like he just took a punch to the gut. Jeez, I... really? You hate it? Why? Because it has no class, no glamour, no art, and no sophistication. You aren't talking about any of the things that make Vogue, Vogue. Isn't that what branding is all about? All your idea is about is making money. Newhouse came up in the golden age of magazines and loves them with every fiber of his being. But his aversion to putting profits first is woefully out of touch with the era of dwindling print revenue. If Vogue doesn't leave the dark ages of the printing press and enter the 21st century soon, Upstart in style will soon clean their Louis Vuitton clock.

20:14It's February 2008 in Times Square. Anna Wintour sits at her desk in Condé Nast HQ. Vases filled with lush bouquets of pink and red roses brighten one corner of her glass-top desk. The mock-up of the April issue lies in front of her. Two senior editors stand on either side of Wintour. They're all examining the cover photo. It's a posed studio shot of the pro basketball phenom for the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James. He's dribbling a basketball. His shoulders are hunched and his teeth bared. His mouth wide open as if in mid-roar. He has his arm around supermodel Gisele Bundchen in a slinky, strapless green dress.

20:58One editor at Wintour's shoulder reaches down and points at LeBron. Anna, we cannot go with this shot. It's problematic. We should go with something from the basketball court shoot in Cleveland, where Giselle is cheering him on from the sidelines. Wintour sits as still as a statue. She's still sizing up the photo from behind her dark glasses. I see passion and drive and personality here. What's the problem? The staffers look at each other in amazement behind Wintour's back. It's the first time Vogue is featuring a black man on the cover. Vogue's managing editor takes up the cause. Okay, I'm just going to come out and say it.

21:40It reeks of King Kong with Fay Wray. Giselle seems like she's off to a cocktail party while LeBron is bellowing like a maniac, and we post him to look like an actual gorilla, and I'm not the only one who thinks this. Wintour cocks her head still inspecting the cover that's ridiculous it's a fabulous show this isn't going to go over well it's a gross understatement the media outrage immediately eclipses James' landmark turn on the cover of Vogue an ESPN commentator accuses the magazine of reinforcing animalistic stereotypes frequently associated with black athletes But Wintour shrugs off the bad press.

22:24She's focused on other, happier news. Younger members of the company's C-suite are taking over more of the aging Newhouse's duties, and they are greenlighting Florio's video proposals. Vogue now has its own internet broadband channel, ShopVogue.tv, which features products from the magazine's print ads for sale, and also airs videos of runway shows and original programming, like a short makeover show called 60 Seconds to Chic and Behind the Lens, a documentary-style series. But the 2008 financial crisis sends the company reeling. Condé Nast revenues plunge 30%. Retail sales hit their lowest tally in 35 years.

23:10And mere months later, Wintour makes another bad judgment call. Media critics pounce when Vogue reports on the 2008 recession in their December issue by assigning a writer to discover the charms of slumming at Walmart and Target. Wintour and Vogue are trying too hard and face-planting in an attempt to capture the witty zeitgeist that InStyle seems to effortlessly achieve. InStyle leads all the glossies with an average of more than 150 ad pages per issue. 2008 is their biggest year ever. The pressure is on at Vogue and all eyes are on the woman British Vogue once called the wind tour of our discontent.

23:56Not only does she have to bring the spotlight back onto her brand, she has to somehow get cash-strapped Americans shopping again.

24:10It's a chilly evening in September 2009 in Queens. Anna Wintour poses with Gwen Stefani in front of a white logo festoon backdrop on the first floor of Macy's. It's the launch of the First Fashion's Night Out event, sponsored by Vogue, a city-wide party of 800 stores with free booze, merch, swag, and celebrity appearances. Wintour and Stefani wave at the crowd made up mostly of press and paparazzi. A reporter raises his hand to get Wintour's attention. Anna, what do you think about the upcoming movie, the September issue? Wintour ducks her head and continues waving, her face frozen in the perfect enigmatic red carpet smile.

24:53She's wearing a perfectly fitting white and black event t-shirt that shows the New York City skyline. Tonight we're focused on fashion's night out. It's our global fashion stimulus package. Happy shopping, everyone. Wintour has no interest in talking about the documentary film she originally greenlit, but now finds irksome. It documents the making of Vogue's all-important September issue. When she saw the final cut, she told the filmmaker it seemed to her like a home movie about two old ladies squabbling in a hallway, referring to herself and senior editor Grace Coddington. She hoped it would boost the Vogue brand, just as she hopes this event will.

25:35But as the night wears on, the free-flowing champagne takes its toll on the crowd. It's 10 p.m. on Fifth Avenue. A model poses in a Zach Posen dress as the designer himself paints her on a huge canvas in the window of sacks. Groups of drunk fashionistas, teenagers, and marauders clog the sidewalks up and down fashion's luxury row. Tonight, it looks more like a frat house pub crawl.