Tweet on Trump sets off journalism firestorm
THE firestorm that erupted around Julia Ioffe’s tweet about Donald Trump hastened the end of her contributing writer gig at Politico — but it has not stopped the political reporter from starting a new gig at The Atlantic next month.
But the brouhaha has resulted in the president-elect threatening to retaliate by booting The Atlantic, owned by millionaire David Bradley, from covering the White House, sources said.
Ioffe ultimately apologized and deleted the tweet that started the uproar.
“We have a president-elect who popularized ‘saying what everyone is thinking,’ but I guess my phrasing should’ve been more delicate,” said Ioffe in her first halfway apology.
Ioffe, in her original tweet, hinted that Trump had an inappropriate relationship with his older daughter. She then fully apologized.
“It was a tasteless, offensive tweet that I regret and have deleted. I am truly and deeply sorry. It won’t happen again,” she tweeted on Wednesday.
Ioffe had already announced that she was leaving her part-time contract position at Politico to take a job at Atlantic Media covering politics and foreign policy.
It was during her lame-duck two weeks that she published the offensive tweet, referring to a story in The Hill about plans for Ivanka Trump to occupy the First Lady’s White House office: “Either Trump is f--king his daughter or he’s shirking nepotism laws. Which is worse?”
Politico Editor Carrie Budoff Brown and Publisher and Editor-inChief John Harris blasted Ioffe’s tweet and announced her departure in a memo to staffers.
The Atlantic weighed in, saying Ioffe made a mistake, regrets it and has apologized. She will not do it again, the publication said.
Mix it up
Leading fashion and lifestyle magazines are becoming dramatically more diverse when it comes to the models that grace their pages, according to a new report.
Roughly 28 percent of models on the covers of the leading US women’s fashion magazines were women of color in 2016, up nearly 8 percent from 2015.
“I would say that 2016 was a very good year for diversity,” said Jennifer Davidson, managing editor of The Fashion Spot. “Even in tough times for magazines, there is a lot to cheer about.”
Davidson pointed to Cosmopolitan’s August cover, featuring body positivity activist Ashley Graham as one example of diversity.
She also pointed to transgender actress Laverne Cox’s “chic, impeccably styled” Lady gunn magazine cover and “gorgeous Priyanka Chopra’s Gucci-clad In Style cover.”
Davidson also labeled 74-year-old Barbra Streisand’s appearance on W magazine “sensual, stunning, sophisticated.” She gave Harper’s Bazaar a thumbs-down because it “showed no women of color on its covers” in 2016. Last year, it had only one: Rihanna — and in 2014, none.
The top title in terms of diversity in the US was Teen Vogue with a diversity of models on 60 percent of its covers.
“It’s a promising year. Hopefully, we’ll see it continue in 2017,” Davidson said.
Vanity bites
Cutbacks are apparently hitting Graydon Carter’s Vanity Fair.
Mark Rozzo, who 2¹/2 years ago jumped from Hearst’s Town & Country to be one of four deputy editors at the Condé Nast title, is exiting.
A Vanity Fair spokeswoman confirmed that Rozzo is “transitioning to VF contributing editor to focus on his writing.”
Carter’s onetime assistant, Punch Hutton, who had risen to a deputyy editor job in her 17-year career at the title, left in February.
The number of deputy editors is now three: Aimee Bell, Dana Brown and Stephanie Mehta.
Russell’s return
Respected editor Margaret Russell — who in June was given the old heave-ho as editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest by Condé Nast Artistic Director Anna Wintour — is returning to print.
She will be editor-at-large at Gal- erie, a quarterly run by editorial director Lisa Cohen — with backing from Hudson News Chairman James Cohen, who is her husband and the founder of the Hudson Publishing subsidiary. There is room in the upper reaches of the quarterly since Suzanne Slesin, who served as the editor right below Lisa Cohen, quietly exited at the end of October. Prior to landing at Architectural Digest as the successor to the legendary Paige Rense, Russell had a long career at Hachette, where she had been editor-in-chief of Elle Decor. Wintour was apparently not ppleased when upscale monthly Architectural Digest featured Khloé and Kourtney Kardashian on the cover of last March’s issue. Wintour’s move shortly thereafter to bbring in her protégé, Amy Astley, directly from celebrity-friendly Teen Vogue raised eyebrows — even if Astley was stronger in the digital realm. Galerie is a glossy high-end magazine that is 1-year-old. The Cohens aim to keep the circulation in the 100,000 range.