The editor of Vanity Fair, Radhika Jones, is stepping down after seven years. Amid the media buzz about who might take her role – long considered a plum one – is a surprising question. “Is it still a good job?” asked the New York Times last week.
Some magazine editors have said no, one even saying “I wouldn’t touch that job”. But Jones’ immediate predecessor, Graydon Carter, says it’s “still a great job for an enterprising editor”, though the golden age of magazines – including Vanity Fair – is clearly over.
Carter’s new memoir recounts his time as editor from 1992 to 2017, during the magazine’s glory days. It’s full of stories about editors and writers who comfortably stalked the halls of power. They rubbed shoulders with tycoons and celebrities, attracted both reverence and apoplectic rage, and were handsomely paid for it.
