Vanity Fair is in trouble according to NBC/MSNBC’s Dylan Byers, and he’s right.
After putting on the dog Sunday with their annual “Oscar party,” the once hot magazine has suffered a crushing blow. They’ve “suspended” their annual New Establishment Summit, a gang bang of moderated talks with Hollywood and tech hot shots, scheduled for this October.
Byers says on Twitter it’s just the beginning of major setbacks for the magazine.
When I called The Wallis Annenberg Center in Los Angeles this morning to confirm the cancellation, the person who answered the phone said he couldn’t say anything and to call Vanity Fair. An email sent to the magazine’s publicist went unanswered last night.
The Oscar party and other events this week were held at the Wallis. But on their calendar there are no bookings for the Summit. By this time last year, the dates were set for October 2019. But Byers says they had trouble selling tickets last year.
The fact is, no one reads Vanity Fair anymore. It’s become irrelevant. Even their website has lost substantial traffic. Over the weekend they sent out an Oscars newsletter composed of old articles written by journalists no longer associated with them. The press doesn’t care too much for the Oscar party any more. On Sunday, all the main entertainment writers were at the “Parasite” party at Soho House.
If Vanity Fair can’t make Hollywood pay attention to its New Establishment issue, then they really have a problem. Tina Brown and Graydon Carter each played the Hollywood connections like fiddles. Newer editor Radhika Jones has squandered what she received on arrival. It’s hard to guess whether she can get it back.
