News Information and Media Site: Byers Market: Radhika Jones vs. the rumors; Richard Plepler starts hiring

February 14, 2020

By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles &

AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in Chicago

Good morning. 🏀 NBA All-Star Weekend is underway in Chicago. Ahiza is in town and will be moderating panels with Baron Davis, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and others.

❤️ Happy Valentine's Day.

Join the Market.

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Condé Chaos

Radhika Jones vs. the rumors

Moving the Market: Condé Nast chief Roger Lynch and artistic director Anna Wintour have spent the last 48 hours trying to quash a rumor that has caught fire inside Condé Nast and the New York media world: that Radhika Jones, the embattled editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, is on the way out.

• The rumor has become so pervasive inside Condé that more than half a dozen current or former Vanity Fair sources have called me — unsolicited and independent of one another — to relay the news that Jones was leaving imminently, as early as this week or in a matter of months. "I've never seen anything like this," one VF staffer told me. "Everyone is calling everyone."

• Several other media reporters are pursuing the story as well, despite assurances from PR that there is no truth to it. When I asked Condé communications chief Joe Libonati how many reporters had called him, he replied: "All of them. Same story. Same tip. 'Being fired as we speak.' ... Someone is really working hard on this one."

• Condé's official line is unambiguous: "There is absolutely no truth to the rumors. We are thrilled with what Radhika has accomplished with Vanity Fair — which has resulted in both increased subscriptions and growing digital audiences, and are excited for what she has in store for the future of the brand."

The big picture: The persistence and pervasiveness of the rumor is indicative of just how challenging Jones' tenure at Vanity Fair has been. She has few fans among Vanity Fair's old guard, especially those close to her predecessor, Graydon Carter. There are several people in the publishing industry who have had the knives out for her since the day she got the job.

• Their criticism of Jones was summed up in a recent article about Condé by New York's Reeves Wiedeman. Her detractors say she has "sucked the glamour and mischief out of [Vanity Fair] and replaced it with bland, earnest celebrity virtue signaling," he wrote. "The magazine's stories rarely seem to break through the noise."

• All of this comes at a particularly tumultuous time for Condé Nast, which lost more than $120 million in 2017 and has been forced to shutter several of its print titles. And as we reported earlier this week, Condé is currently planning to suspend its annual Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in Los Angeles.

What's next: Who knows? There's quite a discrepancy between the gossip taking place among Condé insiders and the official line from the C-Suite. Depending on who you believe, Jones is either the victim of a terrible rumor or vulnerable to imminent termination. Neither of those scenarios is particularly enviable.

Bloomberg/Getty

Strategic Shifts

Roger Lynch launches 'studios'

New content: "Condé Nast Entertainment is upping its TV and film ambitions, announcing the formation of multiple 'studios' dedicated to its major publishing brands," Variety's Todd Spangler reports.

• CNE will launch studios and hire dedicated studio heads and staff for five titles: The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Wired and GQ.

The big picture: CNE will use the studios to develop projects for film, TV and podcasts. Spangler has a full list of the projects underway at each magazine, here.

🏙️ Talk of the Town 🏙️

Glenda Bailey, the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, is scheduled to step down at the end of this month.

So... who's taking her place?

Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Apple TV+

Richard Plepler starts hiring

Moving Manhattan: Former HBO chief Richard Plepler has hired New York literary agent Heather Karpas to join his new production company as he gets ready to create movies, television shows and documentaries for Apple TV+, FT's Anna Nicolaou reports.

• "Plepler is also in talks to hire Josh Tyrangiel, the former head of Vice News, to produce documentaries and other programming for his new company, said people familiar with the matter."

The big picture: "The hire provides some hints about what type of content Mr Plepler may produce at his new venture, which has been largely under wraps since he announced a five-year exclusive production deal with Apple's new streaming service."

• "Demand for book adaptations has soared as the biggest Hollywood companies scour the market for fresh intellectual property that can be packaged into streamable content."

Market Links

• Ren Zhengfei faces a federal racketeering charge (NYT)

• Thomas Kurian plays for the Fortune 500 (Information)

• Mark Zuckerberg makes a run on Pinterest (TechCrunch)

• Craig Forman files for bankruptcy at McClatchy (WSJ)

• Jeff Zucker sells his Madison Avenue apartment (NYP)

Bloomberg/Getty

Closing Arguments

Harvey Weinstein's last stand

Talk of Tinseltown: Harvey Weinstein's top attorney Donna Rotunno used her closing argument yesterday to say that her client is "not the monster" that he's been painted as and to implore the jury to find him not guilty of sex crimes, WSJ's Deanna Paul reports.

• What's next: "Prosecutors are scheduled to deliver their closing arguments on Friday. The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday."

Alex Wong/Getty

Revolving Door

Hope Hicks returns to D.C.

Big in the Beltway, big in L.A.: "Hope Hicks, a close aide to President Trump who resigned nearly two years ago, will return to the White House in a new role," NYT's Maggie Haberman reports.

• "Ms. Hicks, 31 ... had been working as the chief communications officer at Fox, the spinoff company started by Lachlan Murdoch, the son of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch."

• "She will report to Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, and work with the White House political director, Brian Jack. Her title will be 'counselor to the president.'"

The big picture: "Trump... felt more personal comfort with [Hicks] than with almost any other adviser. ... Her return will come as his re-election campaign intensifies and as his advisers say the superstitious president has talked about recreating some aspects of that first race."

• Bonus: Sean Spicer's next gig is a daily talk show for Newsmax TV. Not exactly the kind of lucrative communications gig other former White House press secretaries get.