Business

Plumper Anna portfolio may not pack more punch

The elevation of Anna Wintour is the latest visible sign of a shift in corporate fortunes.

Wintour, who will take on the added duties of Condé Nast artistic director, is likely to have little sway over news-driven titles such as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair or Wired.

Rather, she will have a heavy influence on any titles in the fashion or beauty realm — especially if they happen to be going through a rough patch.

The 63-year-old editrix was commanding a $2 million-a-year package under her previous arrangement, one source said, and presumably she was given a bump up with the extra gig.

While the news caught most insiders by surprise, some sensed a transition had long been under way.

One insider said it was “fair to say” that the clearest public sign came at the company’s annual Christmas party for top editors, publishers and executives held just before last Thanksgiving at the Four Seasons.

For the first time in years, Chairman Si Newhouse did not address the troops. Instead, CEO Chuck Townsend unspooled a glowing film tribute to his boss.

Wintour, who two years earlier had skipped the meeting entirely to fly to Beijing, this time made sure she entered arm-in-arm with Newhouse.

Jonathan Newhouse, the younger first cousin of Si and the head of International, also made one of his rare bash appearances.

Then came months of rumors that Wintour, who had teamed up with Harvey Weinstein and Sarah Jessica Parker to throw fundraisers for President Obama last summer, was angling for a shot at ambassador to the UK or France.

She did not get that job — but the whispers were persistent and loud enough for Townsend to address them in December, according to Women’s Wear Daily.

Then, late Tuesday, insiders were surprised to learn from news reports that the company was about to announce that Wintour had “expanded her role” beyond being Vogue editor.

One Condé editor said it was not clear what exactly Wintour would be doing. Many were looking with interest to an all editor-in-chief meeting today at 10 a.m.

Said one insider yesterday: “The generational transition is now complete. Steve Newhouse (a son of Si’s brother Donald) is the first among equals and internationally, it is Jonathan Newhouse.”

In reality, Si had moved out of his office on the 11th floor of Condé Nast months ago and settled into the Advance family offices on the sixth floor, where the only other magazine is the struggling Lucky.

Although Si was still doing the monthly “print order meeting” with Condé Editorial Director Tom Wallace, for most of the monthlies he was ceding more and more of the duties to an informal “board” that consisted of CEO Townsend, President Bob Sauerberg and several others.

Wintour declined to be interviewed for this column but told The New York Times earlier in the week that her new job would be akin to a roving consultant.

It appears she will have little to do with David Remnick at The New Yorker, Graydon Carter at Vanity Fair or Scott Dadich at Wired.

And for the moment, insiders are saying that Editorial Director Wallace will not see his role diminished.

And while some have likened Wintour’s added duties to those of the legendary Condé Editorial Director Alexander Liberman, she is clearly not as powerful.

“When Alex Liberman was in the job, he reigned supreme,” said one insider.

The question for Wintour may be how to give advice without alienating colleagues. She is also not expected to relinquish much of her day-to-day duties at Vogue.

“In the end, the power and influence of Vogue more than outweigh being a consultant to a lot of magazines,” said the insider.

Townsend said “there was no plans to replace her at Vogue in any discussion with her.”

“Anna will focus on defining and evolving the culture and deepening our influence in fashion and beauty,” he said.

Baghdad Bob

Former Baghdad bureau chief Bobby Ghosh has been elevated to the No. 3 job at Time as the editor of Time International.

In that post, he is responsible for supervising the international reporting going into the domestic edition as well as supervising the three international editions of Time: in Asia, the South Pacific and one that covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Although the domestic edition of Time has seen competitor Newsweek disappear from print under the reign of Tina Brown’s NewsBeast, Ghosh will still have to fight the printed version of Newsweek overseas, where it is produced by overseas licensees using the digital Newsweek International as a template.

At Time, he succeeds Jim Frederick, who could not be reached. The company said Frederick is leaving the magazine to work on book projects and to start a media firm.

Ghosh said he is expecting few changes other than to be staying stateside and behind a desk.

“Over the past year, I’ve filed stories from five different continents,” he told Media Ink.

kkelly@nypost.com