Inside the Rise and Fall of Condé Nast with Michael Grynbaum

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Here's one way New York Times reporter Michael Grynbaum described Condé Nast to me in this week’s chat: “A real exporter of American cultural influence in the late 20th century.” And here’s another one: "A kind of enchanted land” but also a “lost world." And here’s one way I’d describe it: it’s hard to imagine in 2025, but just a few decades ago, magazines were incredibly important — and Conde Nast was the most important, most glamorous magazine publisher in the world. We know why all of that has changed — in large part because of the technology that allows you to listen to this conversation. But Empire of the Elite, Grynbaum’s excellent new book, focuses mostly on how Conde reached its peak influence, and how it sustained it for years. Also discussed here: Money money money. Also: Why Jeff Bezos is very unlikely to buy Vogue in the near future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:47.2	And today we're talking about magazines. Yep, magazines. They are, of course, a relic of the past,
1:52.8	but not that far back in the past. I know a plucky young man who moved to New York City from
1:58.8	the Midwest, so he could try to get a job at a glossy
2:01.7	magazine and then he did and he had a ton of fun and he learned a ton and now that person
2:06.9	records podcast introductions in his shorts because it's really hot out and if he puts on the AC
2:11.3	it makes too much noise. But enough about me. Today I want to talk about Condé Nast, which
2:17.3	defined the magazine business and culture back
2:19.9	in the heyday of magazines, basically the 80s and 90s.
2:23.8	And now, like every other media empire, it is scrambling to catch up to the internet.
2:28.3	It's entirely unclear what becomes of it in the future.
	...

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