Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown's move to the New Yorker this week conjured up some fanciful images from Hollywood cynics. "More pregnant stars, only they'll be drawn in pen and ink," said a studio executive. "Catwoman takes over musty Gotham rag," said a publicist. Not unlike "giving the keys to the Vatican to the devil," said a writer.
But most industry power brokers expressed delight that Brown is moving from Vanity Fair to the New Yorker: There'll be another national magazine where they can read about themselves and their friends. And she won't be threatening to take anyone's job in Hollywood. Besides, many of the same people who derided Brown's move from the glossy, glitzy, celebrity-oriented Vanity Fair might subscribe, but generally don't read, the more wordy and weighty New Yorker.
"I've been out of touch with the New Yorker for 10 years," said a studio boss who is considered one of the more learned of his peer group. Does he read Vanity Fair? Absolutely. And subscriptions in Los Angeles County confirm his example: As compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Vanity Fair readers outnumber New Yorker readers by nearly 3 to 1--91,600 to 32,800.
"Our loss is the intellectuals' gain," said Barry Diller, former Fox Inc. chairman who does read the New Yorker and is a longtime fan and friend of Brown's. "Any fool who will think that what she'll do is try to make (the New Yorker) into Vanity Fair isn't her readership anyway," he said.
Reaction to the naming of Spy co-founder Graydon Carter to replace her was decidedly muted in comparison--from silent horror to mystifying.
Spy, which Carter left nine months ago to become editor of The New York Observer, is the antithesis of balanced journalism. Its claim to fame is satirizing the very things Vanity Fair celebrates. Ironically, Tina Brown was the focus of a scathing Spy profile that claimed her magazine was little more than a glossy showcase for Hollywood puffery.
While some very powerful industry executives claim to loathe Spy (which means they also read it--and fear it), they believe Carter won't bring the same mean sensibility to Vanity Fair.
"I doubt he'll be allowed to tinker too much with what's already a winning formula," said a Disney executive.
Vanity Fair had become \o7 the \f7 star vehicle in the print world since Brown took over as editor nine years ago, much more than Premiere, which is devoted solely to newsfeatures about the film business, the national news magazines Time and Newsweek--"They can pull the cover (story) at the last minute"--or the arts sections of major newspapers.
