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Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter, who turns 64 in July, is in the midst of negotiating a new contract, kicking the Condé Nast rumor mill into high gear as the company enters a more fiscally conservative era.
For the first time in his 21-year tenure, the talks are not being handled by the company’s aging family patriarch S.I. Newhouse Jr. but rather by CEO Charles Townsend, who holds the purse strings.
Carter has been at the helm since 1992, when he succeeded Tina Brown. After a bumpy first year, he went on to become one of the most high-profile and powerful editors, making his annual Hollywood Oscar night party and the VF’s New Establishment list of media moguls coveted totems in the world of pop culture.
“He loves his job, and he’s very powerful,” said one insider.
His contract is believed to expire in July, roughly two months from now, indicating that things aren’t going smoothly.
As the negotiations between Carter’s attorney and Condé drag on, insiders have come up with a wish-list of potential replacements. They include: Adam Moss, the award-winning editor of New York magazine; Janice Min, who pushed Us Weekly to its highest circulation before taking over The Hollywood Reporter; Dylan Jones, editor of the well-regarded British GQ; and Geordie Greig, the politically connected editor of the Sunday Mail in the UK.
Carter enjoys the perks of his position. But as his interests have expanded, sources say he is spending less and less time in his well-appointed office at 4 Times Square.
He has interests in three restaurants — Waverly Inn, Monkey Bar and The Beatrice — and his been involved in several film productions over the past decade.
Last year, the powers-that-be grew alarmed when VF’s single-copy sales in the first half plunged 18.8 percent, to 288,938, out of total circulation of just under 1.2 million. The second-half figures didn’t reverse the newsstand slide.
Ad sales have also been soft, which doesn’t put Carter in the strongest negotiating position. One source suggested it is like a baseball player having an off year in the so-called walk year of a contract.
Townsend insists that talk of a succession plan is off base and that he expects Carter to be at the helm for years to come.
“There are no plans for anyone to succeed Graydon at Vanity Fair,” said Townsend. “We look forward to many more years of his leadership, wit and talent.”
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A 12-person committee is ramping up the search to replace Steve Shepard, the founding dean of the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
Shepard, a former editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek who founded the school, announced in late February his intention to step down at the end of this year from a job with a salary of $238,000. He’s been the dean since the school opened its doors in August 2007.
“Steve Shepard started the school from scratch, and I mean from scratch,” said Matthew Goldstein, the chancellor of CUNY who is also in the process of stepping down. “His shoes are going to be hard to fill.”
The committee, headed by CUNY trustee Peter Pantaleo, has met only once so far but later this week is going to begin advertising the job opening in newspapers, the trade publication Inside Higher Education and on academic websites, according to Deputy Chancellor Jay Hershenson.
The job calls for a strong track record as a journalist, with academic experience a plus — and of course a strong knack for fundraising. In his memoir “Deadlines and Disruptions,” Shepard said that asking for money was the part of the job he enjoyed the least.
He will become a professor with an office and a five-year contract. Although not on the search committee, he has hired virtually all of the faculty members and is expected to be influential behind the scenes in picking his own successor.
A big talent pool may come from the people who sought but did not get the job at the uptown Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where Nick Lemann is being replaced by former Washington Post Managing Editor and New Yorker writer Steve Coll.
No names have surfaced yet in the CUNY search, but the deadline for resumes is July 1. The goal is to announce a new dean in the fall who can start work on Jan. 1.