Condé Nast names Anna Wintour as chief content officer, reveals global content strategy

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Dec 16, 2020

Anna Wintour has gone up yet another rung on the Condé Nast ladder, being named chief content officer for the publishing company, worldwide. 

Wintour currently serves as editor-in-chief of Vogue U.S. and as Condé Nast's artistic director and global content advisor. In addition to serving as chief content officer, she will also now serve as global editorial director of Vogue.

Christiane Mack, chief content operations officer, who has largely been responsible for the unification of the creative teams across video, digital and print, will continue in her role, Condé said, and will report to Wintour and Condé Nast Entertainment president, Agnes Chu.

The latest expansion of Wintour's control at the company comes as Condé Nast continues to implement a strategy overhaul in an effort to organize itself for the digital era. The company's efforts to create a global operating model and stay profitable has been an ongoing project, since the company decided to consolidate its business by merging Condé Nast and Condé Nast International in November, 2018. 

The move follows a year of financial and social turmoil at the company. Like so many other businesses across differing industries, Condé Nast suffered a financial blow amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, forcing the company to lay off and furlough hundreds of employees.

This past summer, the company also reckoned with accusations of racism and discrimination. Not long after Adam Rapoport resigned as editor-in-chief of Condé Nast's Bon Appétit, following the surfacing of pictures showing the editor in brown face and larger accusations of a discriminatory culture at the food magazine, Wintour sent out an internal email apologizing for "publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant" and not giving enough space to Black creatives during her over 30-year-long career at Vogue. 

Along with Wintour's promotion, Condé also named new global editorial directors to several of its publications, with remaining global brands to follow in early 2021.

Amy Astley will now be the global editorial director of AD; Divia Thani will be the global editorial director of Condé Nast Traveler ;and Will Welch will be the global editorial director of GQ. 

At Vogue, Edward Enninful will be European editorial director for the markets owned and operated by Condé Nast, which include the U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Spain, the company said.

Simone Marchetti has been promoted to European editorial director of Vanity Fair, inclusive of the editions published in France, Italy and Spain. Radhika Jones will continue to oversee Vanity Fair U.S. and U.K. as editor-in-chief.

The deputy editorial directors for AD, Condé Nast Traveler and GQ will be Oliver Jahn, Jesse Ashlock and Adam Baidawi, respectively.

The global unification of the brand editorial teams will enable the brands to create the best version of each global story or piece of content and distribute it in customized ways for each local edition, Condé said. The global editorial directors will continue to oversee the edition of their title in their home market, in addition to their new global brand responsibilities.