Graydon Carter to step down as Vanity Fair editor after 25 years
He took over the role in 1992.
Graydon Carter is stepping down as editor of Vanity Fair after 25 years at the helm.
The journalist, who began his tenure at the US magazine in July 1992, will depart at the end of the year.
“I’m now eager to try out this ‘third act’ thing that my contemporaries have been telling me about, and I figure I’d better get a jump on it.”
Carter will stay on long enough to oversee the planning of the 2018 edition of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue, the magazine’s annual triple-gatefold cover that he established in 1995.
The issue is followed by the magazine’s annual star-studded Oscar party.
He added: “I’ve had the most extraordinarily talented staff, which has made my longevity in this job possible.
“Indeed, many of the senior staff at the magazine have worked alongside me for my whole time here. We built a magazine with sophistication, wit, and an international outlook, on a bedrock of solid journalism. And Vanity Fair has been tremendously profitable. I don’t think there’s a monthly magazine anywhere with a greater reach.”
He also oversaw the 2007 Africa Issue, which was co-produced with guest editor Bono and featured 20 different covers including Maya Angelou, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Warren Buffett, Barack Obama, Iman, Oprah Winfrey, Muhammed Ali, and Bill and Melinda Gates.
He also created the magazine’s annual New Establishment list of leaders of the information, entertainment, and technology worlds and the corresponding New Establishment Summit and gave columns to writers including Christopher Hitchens, James Wolcott, and Dominick Dunne.
The most recent cover of the magazine features Prince Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle, with a corresponding interview in which she declares: “We are in love”.
A replacement for Carter is yet to be announced.
