Carine Roitfeld (above), who was long seen as an heir apparent to Anna Wintour, is taking a senior advisory role with Vogue’s archrival, Harper’s Bazaar. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Carine Roitfeld, the style icon who once ran French Vogue, has landed at Harper’s Bazaar, amping up the rivalry with Condé Nast and Vogue.
But don’t look for the cutting edge “Erotica Chic” that gave her a small but dedicated following in Europe to begin showing up in the Hearst title.
“She has enormous range as an editor and she’ll be creating content for a large-scale global audience,” said Hearst Magazines CEO David Carey.
Translation? The edgy fashion shoots that some derided as “porn chic” when she had a small circulation title won’t be showing up in the larger American brands at Hearst.
Roitfeld was forced out of French Vogue in late December 2010, apparently after clashing with Condé Nast International Chairman Jonathan Newhouse. For most of the 10 years she ran the title, Roitfeld was mentioned as a potential successor to Anna Wintour at flagship US Vogue. But that never happened. Wintour is still the reigning fashion editrix at Vogue, where ad pages are up 4.2 percent through October, to 2,209, according to Media Industry Newsletter.
Harper’s Bazaar in the US is up 10 percent this year, but its 1,449.6 ad pages through October still lag sibling Elle, which had 1,991.
Since leaving French Vogue, Roitfeld started her own magazine, CR Fashion Book, which debuted in September and was thick with 150 ad pages.
Condé Nast reportedly refused to let any of its fashion photographers work on her new magazine.
The magazine was published in conjunction with Stephen Gan, who publishes V, Visionaire and other titles through his Fashion Media Group LLC.
Gan also happens to be creative director of Harper’s Bazaar’s US edition, edited by Glenda Bailey.
Roitfeld will also continue with her magazine and other projects.
Condé Nast cuts
Cutbacks at Condé Nast over the past two days have reached about 60 people, insiders said.
As layoffs go, it was nowhere near as severe as the McKinsey-inspired downsizing in 2009, which ultimately resulted in the shutdown of a half dozen magazines and the axing of 400 people, painstakingly stretched out over the better part of a year.
This time, the blood-letting lasted only two days and is apparently over.
In a memo CEO Chuck Townsend sent to Condé staffers shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday, he said he expects no more cuts this year.
Most of Condé’s titles were ordered to chop their operating budget by 5 percent before Dec. 31.
“Given the challenges of the US economy, this required difficult decisions, including the elimination of some staff positions,” said Townsend in the memo. “These changes have been communicated and while businesses must continually evolve, we expect no further announcements related to the 2013 business plans and staffing.”
Among the highest-ranking departures yesterday, sources said, was Catherine Romano, a senior executive editor at Glamour who was recruited from Us Weekly by Cindi Leive less than a year ago.
Two other lower-ranking editorial staffers were also let go.
GQ, edited by Jim Nelson, lost only two editorial staffers and a few business side people.
Self magazine, edited by Lucy Danziger — who also happens to be reigning president of the American Society of Magazine Editors — was among the hardest-hit titles, with eight editorial staffers given the old heave-ho and at least three business-side staffers let go on Wednesday.
The Fairchild Division, home to Women’s Wear Daily and the relaunched M magazine, lost vice president/publisher Marc Berger and five others. Paul Jowdy was tapped as new group publisher of the WWD Group.
Oddly, about half the mags in the stable apparently escaped any head count reductions, including The New Yorker, Architectural Digest, Wired, Vanity Fair and Vogue.
Whole Living sale
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has put Whole Living on the block.
The magazine was purchased back in 2004 when it was known as Body + Soul. At one point after its name change to Whole Living, in mid-2010, it seemed to be surging in subscriptions and advertising — but it has since fallen back to earth.
It had revenue of around $20 million a year ago, sources said, and an operating loss, after corporate overhead was stripped to the tune of around $2 million.
At the time of its purchase, Martha Stewart had just been sentenced to prison for lying to federal investigators in the ImClone stock sale. Stewart spent five months behind bars.
At the time, the company was fearful that the domestic diva’s brand would be forever tarnished and was adding non-Martha titles to the publishing portfolio.
Through October, Whole Living’s ad pages were down about 8 percent to 420.5.
The company declined to comment, but sources say that bids are due this weekend.