A new editor for W is expected to be named early this week, according to a company spokeperson.
With long-time top editor Patrick McCarthy now out as editorial director, the guessing game on the new editor continues to be the most gossiped about position in the publishing world. According to Maurie Perl of Conde Nast, “We have not named an editor yet, but we may by early this week.”
The early favorite, Joe Zee, the creative director of Elle, is now seen to be in a neck and neck race with Stefano Tonchi, the editor of the New York Times fashion magazine “T.”
Tonchi’s status was given a big boost when it was floated in the WWD gossip column Memo Pad on Friday.
“He’s dapper and he’d be good at selling ads,” said one source. Less clear is if Tonchi has the contacts with top fashion photographers needed for a very visual magazine.
Whoever is named editor will have to refashion the masthead as it moves from the gritty Fairchild division into the glitzy Condé Nast wing of Advance Publications.
Many of the current writers are pulling double duty working on both W and Women’s Wear Daily.
Top editors such as Bridget Foley, the executive editor, and about eight staff members below her on the magazine will be reassigned completely to Women’s Wear Daily, the fashion daily that helped spawn W decades ago.
Whoever wins the spot will not pull in the $2 million-a-year package that McCarthy is said to have commanded, in part because McCarthy also served as chairman of the Fairchild Fashion Group. He hangs around with that title until year’s end.