The website Vanity Fair is one of the first places to look for when you are searching for Hollywood news. Now, their parent company, Condé Nast, decided to move the publication away from things like movie reviews and more.
In a memo to staff, shared by Variety, Vanity Fair’s new editorial director, Mark Guiducci, shared that the publication would be moving away from some of its staples. Which includes reviews, leading to popular critic Richard Lawson being let go from the publication. Guiducci also said that the publication would no longer be a source for news aggregation and trade coverage.
“Today, we will start working toward our new editorial strategy, gradually sunsetting our siloed vertical structure to focus on Vanity Fair as a whole,” Guiducci wrote in the memo to staff. “We will be moving away from news aggregation, reviews, and trade coverage. We will no longer think of something as a ‘Hive post’ or a ‘HWD post.’ We will treat each story as a Vanity Fair story.”
Guiducci promised the remaining staff that this did not mean that they would no longer take risks at Vanity Fair. “This does not mean we are becoming less ambitious. The opposite is true.” There is no news yet on how that is possible given the site moving away from critical analysis by taking away their review coverage.
This isn’t a good thing
Regardless of how you feel about the publications posts or coverage of something, completely erasing the critical part of your website doesn’t really bode well for the future of it. Factor in the site removing the news aggregation side of it, it will severely limit what they can put out. Will the site be just interviews with celebrities and exclusives? What about a commentary on Hollywood and the “culture” surrounding it, as Guiducci hinted?
Whatever comes of Vanity Fair, it is upsetting to see. Publications thrive on critical analysis, especially when it comes to film and television. Cutting that from your vertical just leaves it as a shell of what it used to be, in my opinion.
(featured image: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
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