For months, if not years, Vanity Fair’s website numbers have been a mess. Like its newsstand circulation, Vanity Fair has dropped in numbers considerably since Radhika Jones succeeded Graydon Carter as editor in chief and installed a new multicultural agenda.
But this week, the flailing magazine with an unclear mandate stuck gold, at least online. They published a piece by Caroline Rose Giuliani, daughter of crazy ex New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and former newscaster Donna Hanover. The article was an excoriation of Donald Trump, Caroline’s vow to vote for Joe Biden, and a repudiation of her despised father.
The result, according to Alexa.com, was a sudden jump on October 14th in VanityFair.com’s readership. It wasn’t huge but it was something, a sign of life after a long, dismal decline. The website was ranked internationally by Alexa at number 5,169 among all sites on the 14th. Two days later, it was up to 5,019. In the US, the site 1,171. Last week, it was down to around 1,500.
Strangely, the Giuliani piece is not featured on the website right now, Sunday at 11am. It’s hard to find, in fact. It’s been replaced by a story about rapper Killer Mike that absolutely no one cares about. But that’s Jones’s Vanity Fair.
Let’s hope they paid Caroline Rose a lot since she briefly saved the site from torpor. It won’t last long but they should pay her a royalty on traffic.
Caroline, as I wrote here 10 years ago when she was arrested for shoplifting in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hasn’t had it easy. I referred in 2020 to a piece I reported in New York magazine. To wit:
Starting when she was 6 years old, there was trouble.
I reported this story from April 27, 1995 in New York Magazine. That was the day Caroline was used by Daddy and his staff as comic relief to break up two presentations of the city budget — first to Wall Street and then to the press.
Caroline was seated next to Rudy’s then girlfriend Cristyne Lategano, who was also his spokesman, during the morning presentation to Wall Street analysts. Lategano tapped Caroline on the back. The little girl ran to the podium and interrupted her father’s delivery of the grim budget news. Everyone laughed. The Mayor said, “Did you learn that from Andrew?” He was referring to Caroline’s older brother, Andrew, who’d famously interrupted a Mayoral speech earlier. The solemn mood in the room was broken.
Giuliani must have liked the effect. Later that day, at the press conference, Lategano did the same thing. She sent poor Caroline “spontaneously” to the podium at the same time as before. The Mayor said the same thing. “Did you learn that from Andrew?” Everyone laughed.
Last year, Caroline went against her father publicly and backed Barack Obama for president. It’s no secret that the former Mayor and his children are estranged. But considering that during their childhood Caroline and Andrew’s dad had two affairs while in office, they might be excused. Let’s just hope Caroline can get some help so she doesn’t have to act out her pain in public.
