Graydon Carter Is Stepping Down From Vanity Fair After 25 Years

Graydon Carter, who just celebrated his 25th anniversary as editor of Vanity Fair, is leaving the Condé Nast publication at the end of the year. “I’ve loved every moment of my time here and I’ve pretty much accomplished everything I’ve ever wanted to do,” Carter said in a statement provided by the company. “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, 68, sat down with The New York Times Wednesday, which first reported the news. Of his "third act" Carter says he doesn't have much to reveal yet. “Best to fail quietly at the beginning of something rather than make grand pronouncements," he told the Times. He'll stay on to oversee the 2018 edition of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue, which comes out in late January, then he'll head off to Provence for what he calls a "garden leave." Carter, an ASME Hall of Fame member, was named by Adweek as Editor of the Year three times, most recently in 2015. "They can kick me around for a while longer," he told us then. "I love this job." [kickout id="1"] Carter was thinking of leaving Vanity Fair earlier this year but decided to stay after his longtime New York nemesis Donald Trump was elected president. “He’s tweeted about me 42 times, all in the negative,” Carter told the Times. “So I blew up all the tweets and I framed them all. They’re all on a wall—this is the only wall Trump’s built—outside my office. There’s a space left for one more tweet to complete the bottom line. So if he does, I’m just going to call our framer, and say we need one more." Carter was named Vanity Fair editor in July 1992. "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," he said. "Vanity Fair has been tremendously profitable. I don’t think there’s a monthly magazine anywhere with a greater reach.” In addition to his work there, Carter is an author, film producer and co-owner of two New York restaurants, the Waverly Inn and the Monkey Bar. Early names being floated as Carter's successor include New York magazine editor Adam Moss and former Hollywood Reporter and Us Weekly editor Janice Min. “I want to make it really easy for the next person,” he told the Times. “I care about this magazine. I don’t want it to go anywhere other than up.” On Tuesday, WWD reported that Condé Nast was expected to role out another reorganization of its magazine business as early as this week.

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Graydon Carter Is Stepping Down From Vanity Fair After 25 Years

He'll be leaving the Condé Nast publication in December

Chris Ariens

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