The town has been abuzz with rumors that head honcho at Conde Nast, S.I. Newhouse, is in talks with French Vogue editor in chief Carine Roitfeld to take over as editor in chief of American Vogue in as a little as one month. While these talks have been raging on for awhile now, they took steam when a post went up on New York Media-centric site Gawker.com in which it was reported that Conde Nast insiders dining at the Waverly Inn noted that Newhouse left early for his December vacation to Europe to stop in Paris to finalize a deal to oust Anna Wintour.
Newhouse, who rarely speaks out against rumors even through his publicist, categorically denied this to the Wall Street Journal saying, “this is the silliest rumor I ever heard.” For her part, Roitfeld denied the rumor to WWD adding that she was, in fact, in London overseeing a fashion shoot with Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott for an upcoming issue, saying “I’m very happy at Vogue France.”
That said, given Vogue’s floundering sales, Fashion Rocks’ hiatus, and the downsizing of Men’s Vogue as a biannual supplement to Vogue, the rumors are not that unfounded. Though observing how much more freedom Roitfeld has with French Vogue, and given the mainstream American Vogue readers, even if Roitfeld were to take over the reigns at American Vogue, it would likely (and unfortunately), come with less freedom and less provocatively intriguing results as Roitfeld is currently able to deliver with the much less circulated French edition of the publication.
