Condé Nast carried out a minor staff purge Thursday, ousting roughly 15 employees from Vanity Fair and additional employees from Glamour.
“Vanity Fair and Glamour are taking the first steps in reshaping their teams to reflect the new editorial directions of the brands – with new additions and initiatives to be announced shortly,” a spokesperson told TheWrap. “The priority for each is to create quality and provocative content across all platforms equally, embracing the next generation of readers and viewers.”
Among those exiting are the magazine’s managing editor Chris Garrett, features editor Jane Sarkin, deputy editors Aimee Bell and Dana Brown, senior photography producer Kathryn MacLeod, and communications chief Beth Kseniak.
Another Condé Nast property, Glamour also saw cuts, though the number was unclear.
The Vanity Fair cuts will likely not endear Vanity Fair’s new editor-in-chief Radhika Jones to remaining employees. Jones was brought in earlier this year to replace longtime editorial chief Graydon Carter. Like all legacy media publications, Vanity Fair has struggled against persistent digital headwinds as print sales have flagged across the industry.
The staff shakeup comes at a particularly awkward time for the magazine, with Oscar season just around the corner. In addition to the most recent news, Vanity Fair has been buffeted by awkward moments including the removal of James Franco from the 2018 Hollywood issue. Before that, the magazine also took heat for a tongue-in-cheek video directed at Hillary Clinton which her defenders promptly decried as “sexist.”
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the cuts.