Media Carousel: Glenda Bailey Steps Down as Harper’s Bazaar EIC and Other Media Jobs Changes
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Most workers are still trying to adjust to being back at their desks after the holidays, but in the media world, where the revolving door is always swinging, there has already been a number of changes this year.
The biggest news of 2019 so far has to be Glenda Bailey stepping down as editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar after close to two decades at the helm. As first reported by WWD, she’ll be taking on a business role at the publication, working with editorial teams and fashion and beauty marketers “to develop partnerships and portfolios.”
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About a minute after media watchers digested that announcement, talk soon turned to who Bailey’s successor might be and three names came up time and time again. They were Joyann King, the executive editorial editor of Bazaar’s web site; Stella Bugbee, the editor in chief of The Cut, New York Magazine’s fashion vertical; and Kristina O’Neill, the editor in chief of WSJ. Magazine.
One of those has already moved to stop the speculation, though. Bugbee said she is not taking up with Hearst. O’Neill, who was previously Bazaar’s executive editor, has also in the past denied being interested in leaving WSJ, but that has done nothing to dispel the rumors that she may be considering a return.
That wasn’t the only move at Harper’s as Bazaar.com features director Olivia Fleming departed to take on the new head of content role at The Helm, the site that focuses on female-founded businesses, with the aim to attract people to one platform where they can invest or spend their money on companies built and led by women. It launched an e-commerce component last year and now Fleming, who was at Bazaar.com for four years, will build up its editorial offering, straddling fashion and activism.
Of her decision to make the jump, Fleming told WWD it was an opportunity “to move the conversation from talk to action.” “It’s moving it from the hypothetical to the tangible. Publishing stories on women’s issues such as childbirth and abortion rights, which I did at Bazaar.com, is great and it moves the conversation in the right direction, but now I actually want to create concrete economic change for women, which The Helm is poised to do,” she said.
And that’s not it as Bustle Digital Group’s lifestyle arm tapped Tiffany Reid for its newly created fashion director role, overseeing all editorial fashion content across Bustle, Elite Daily, Nylon, Romper, and The Zoe Report. She joins from Hearst Women’s Fashion Group, where she worked with Harper’s Bazaar.com, Cosmopolitan, Elle and Marie Claire, among others.
Outside of the Hearst bubble, another former glossy editor also has a new job. Stefano Tonchi, the former editor of W — where he reigned for a decade before a conspicuous fallout last year with its former owner Condé Nast — has joined the nearly 100-year-old L’Officiel, founded as a French fashion magazine. Tonchi is now its chief creative officer, a first for the company, which is owned by the Jalou family.
Other Condé HR moves include changes to its international board, with Wolfgang Blau replacing Jonathan Newhouse as a member. Blau oversees all non-U.S. markets, as well as selected global strategic functions for the publisher’s international arm.
Elsewhere, Nick Baumann, most recently the enterprise editor of HuffPost, moved to The Atlantic as its political editor, while Whitney Dangerfield became senior editor for Ideas as the newsroom continues to build up its reporting in the midst of President Donald Trump’s impeachment and ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Dangerfield spent seven years at The New York Times, where she was a senior staff editor for Opinion and Sunday Review, and launched Draft, a weekly series on the art of writing. Most recently, she was the digital editor at This American Life.
Scott Omelianuk, meanwhile, was unveiled as Inc. magazine’s editor in chief. Best known for his 12-year tenure at This Old House, Omelianuk has most recently been working with start-ups, joining the board of the MIT Enterprise Forum.
At Forbes, there has been some corporate changes. Chief executive Mike Federle promoted veteran employees Nina Gould to chief product officer and Vadim Supitskiy to chief technology officer. At the same time, he revealed that chief digital officer Salah Zalatimo is leaving the company to become ceo of a unit of Block.one.
And Sandow has hired Kate Kelly Smith as executive vice president and managing director of Luxe Interiors + Design, and chief sales officer for Sandow’s design media brands.
Last but by no means least, there’s been the usual spatter of changes at The New York Times. After a stint filling in on Metro, Edgar Sandoval is joining metro full-time as a reporter covering law enforcement; Inyoung Kang will become the deputy weekend editor in the Washington bureau and Dave Kim is moving from national to the book review as a preview editor as Alida Becker retires. She’s leaving the book review after 30 years as a preview editor.
Jason Karaian has also joined the newspaper from Quartz to become a new DealBook editor. Karaian, who will be based in London, will work alongside Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael de la Merced.
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