Graydon’s hope for gala party may get doused
GRAYDON Carter, the outgoing editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, is hoping to give himself a fabulous going away party — but his Condé Nast bosses, sources said, are balking at spending hundreds of thousands dollars for such a fête, especially when the company is looking to slash budgets by up to $100 million.
Brands inside Condé Nast are being asked to lower costs by up to 20 percent in 2018.
Carter envisions a huge party location, like at the Museum of Natural History, with lots of Hollywood swells, said one wag. But unless he can get some big-name sponsors to foot the bill, the farewell will look to be a lot more low key — “maybe a farewell dinner at Monkey Bar,” suggested a source. Carter co-owns Monkey Bar. “Graydon thinks it should be something like President Barack Obama leaving the White House, but [Condé Nast Artistic Director] Anna Wintour won’t have it,” said the source.
Carter is prepping himself for an appearance on the cover of VF’s Hollywood issue that hits on Feb. 28. It’s the last issue he will edit.
“There will be a farewell dinner for Graydon at the beginning of December,” said a VF spokeswoman. “It’s still in the planning stages.”
Meanwhile, the search for Carter’s replacement continues.
Among the long list of candidates who have been contacted, sources said, are two from the New York Times — Andrew Ross Sorkin, the bestselling author of “Too Big To Fail” and a co-host of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” and Radhika Jones, who at one time spearheaded Time magazine’s Time 100 and Person of the Year issues while serving as deputy managing editor of the newsweekly, before jumping to the New York Times, where she is the editorial director of Times Books.
Sorkin and Jones join Sally Singer, who had a short and stormy run editing T: The New York Times Fashion Magazine before returning to Vogue to run its Web site, and Tyler Brêlé, the founder of Wallpaper who is currently running Monocle, sources said, and Jess Cagle, editorial director of People, who was fingered last week by Page Six, as possible Carter successors.
Oddly, the current issue of Monocle has a delightful puff piece on a sixth candidate: Janice Min. But Min’s seven-figure salary might discourage Condé Nast executives from hiring her as they hope to save some of the $2 million compensation package being doled out to Carter.
Dana Brown, a VF deputy editor, and Mike Hogan, the head of VF’s Web site, were endorsed by Carter for the job.
But color those two as dark horses because, sources whisper, “Anna doesn’t want a Graydon spy in the job.”
Edgar searches
Edgar Bronfman Jr. is teaming up with a second investor to create a fund that is targeting disruptive startup media companies.
The new company, Waverley Capital, will count Bronfman as chairman and Daniel Leff, the former founder and managing partner of Luminari Capital, as CEO and cofounder.
Bronfman was already a senior adviser to Luminari and was one of its principal investors. Bronfman told Media Ink that while he and Leff are looking for a new investor to take Luminari to the next level, they instead decided to start a whole new fund.
The company is hoping to raise $100 million.
“We’re looking solely at companies that are innovative and disruptive in media,” said Leff.
Bronfman said that the new firm anticipates doing “about 20-ish investments” and is seeking to make seed and early-stage investments.
In the past, Luminari, a $35 million fund, has invested in Roku TV — which went public in September — The Athletic, FuboTV and Pluto TV.
Buying Rolling Stone would not be in the cards.
“Jann Wenner’s a friend of mine and I wish him well, but Rolling Stone is a current media company,” Bronfman said. “We’d look at businesses that disrupt and innovate — so it’s not the kind of business we’d be looking at.”
Time moves
Time Inc. stock sank to a new alltime low — $11.40 a share — on Monday, before climbing off the floor ever so slightly Tuesday.
On Monday, the company said it was taking Jaison Blair out of his previous role as chief investment officer and putting a newcomer, Roger Clark, into the job as a senior VP.
On Oct. 24, two law firms, Holzer & Holzer and Johnson Fistel, filed notices that they were trolling for aggrieved investors in Time Inc. to potentially file a class-action lawsuit over the dismal firstquarter results — claiming Time Inc. may have violated SEC disclosure rules.
Blair continues with the decidedly non-glamorous job of supervising Time Inc. India — where the company has outsourced more than 500 of its jobs, with more likely to follow.
On Tuesday, Time Inc. shares gained 20 cents, to $11.60. The company reports third-quarter results on Nov. 9.