This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

When it was announced in June that Anna Wintour would step back from her role as editor-in-chief of Vogue, the flagship U.S. edition.

It wasn't one of those items that's old news in a day.

Speculation, analysis, and commentary circulated all summer.

But now Winter has named her successor, Chloe Mow, who's worked at the magazine since 2011.

Now, I'm hardly an objective observer here.

Anna and I have been colleagues and friends for a very long time.

Even as Chloe Mell takes over at Vogue,

Anna will remain in very senior roles.

She's the editorial director of all the Vogue editions throughout the world,

and she's the chief

content officer of Condi Nass, which publishes the New Yorker as well.

But what's unique about this particular change of the guard is that Wintour is synonymous with

Vogue itself.

Many people these days can't name the editor of a major newspaper any more than they can name

the king of Belgium, but when the camera pans to Anna Wintour in the stands at the U.S. Open

or Wimbledon, you know who that is.

No Chiron necessary.

Wintour was appointed creative director of Vogue in 1983, then editor-in-chief in 1988, and whole generations of designers

have come up under her famously decisive judgments. She organizes the annual Metgala, which she grew

from a charity dinner, into a global phenomenon. We met in our studios at One World Trade Center.

...