The staff of Vogue has been told something for the first time in nearly four decades: The fashion magazine will soon have a top editor other than Anna Wintour. The editor-in-chief, 75, announced that she's reducing her duties but will remain as global chief content officer for Condé Nast, the parent company, CNN reports. Wintour will also be Vogue's global editorial director. She's looking for a new top editor of the magazine, whose title will be head of editorial content. The job shifting brings Vogue in line with structural changes Condé Nast already has made at its properties around the world.
Those changes made four years ago put a head of editorial content led by a global editorial director in every operation, per Women's Wear Daily. That will set up the company's US hierarchy the same way others are in Japan, China, India, Taiwan, UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Middle East. Wintour's duties already had grown to include global oversight of Condé Nast brands. But Thursday's announcement ends an era for Vogue and the fashion world. The magazine has grown in influence as Wintour's fame has grown—partly for her stern management approach that inspired The Devil Wears Prada, per USA Today.
Wintour caught attention with her first cover in November 1988, featuring a relaxed model, Michaela Bercu, in $50 jeans and a $10,000 sweater, per People. It was denim's first appearance on a Vogue cover. "It was so unlike the studied and elegant close-ups that were typical of Vogue's covers back then, with tons of makeup and major jewelry," the magazine quoted her as saying in 2012. "This one broke all the rules." Wintour solidified her own brand as a stoic fixture in the front row of New York Fashion Week shows and running the Met Gala.