Vanity Fair’s new cruise director will have to choose between his reporters and his friends

In June, just weeks after becoming editor of Vanity Fair, Mark Guiducci walked into the kind of dilemma that has defined the magazine at its best and its worst: Will it stand up to its celebrity subjects, or merely celebrate them?

As the former creative editorial director of Vogue, Giuducci was one of the few members of the media invited on a Mediterranean Ritz-Carlton cruise stacked with A-List celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Brady, and Martha Stewart. But instead of going himself, he sent the Jann Wenner biographer Joe Hagan. As Hagan roamed the ship collecting anecdotes about partying celebrities, the PR team for the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection began to panic, trying to retroactively tell Vanity Fair that the entire cruise was now off the record.

Guiducci was stuck between the publicists who ruled the celebrity fashion world he’d long inhabited, and an aggressive and unpredictable reporter who had spent several days on a boat observing and interacting with his celebrity subjects. The piece was held for weeks after the yacht came into port, as Vanity Fair haggled with PR. One person familiar with the situation told Semafor that Guiducci acknowledged that several of the names on the boat were personal friends of his who may not be happy.

On Aug. 6, the piece ran, with juicy tidbits about parties, psychedelic drug use, Orlando Bloom talking about his dating life, and a not-so-subtle dig at the PR reps — but with some choice names omitted.

Jones’ departure after seven years as editor sparked a broad search for a replacement led by Wintour, who scoured the industry inside and outside Condé Nast. Jones was a controversial pick from day one, a cerebral editor whose soft-spoken demeanor and consensus-driven management style was a departure from the legendary status that Graydon Carter cultivated in his quarter century atop the publication.

Jones’ tenure was consumed by long-neglected dirty work, like managing the magazine’s overdue integration of print and digital that had lagged under Carter. But amid that digital transition, VF chased cheap traffic, diverting readers’ attention away from the big swings of magazine journalism and pushing it into commodity news and quick-turn aggregation. While subscriptions to the magazine remain above a million, according to figures shared with the Alliance for Audited Media, internally the magazine was becoming a commercial afterthought, as Condé focused on its key ad sales category, fashion. As traffic began to dry up in 2023 and 2024, it became increasingly clear that the magazine would need to recalibrate its audience strategy. Jones’ decision to step down provided an excuse.

A former Vanity Fair assistant and family friend of Wintour, Guiducci had risen through the ranks at Condé Nast, jumped ship to edit Garage, and returned to Vogue in 2020. He had previously made his interest in the job known to some within the company, and immediately became a contender when Jones announced her decision to leave in May. He pitched leading the magazine’s return to glamour, with an editorial focus on high-wattage journalistic talent covering the major players in Hollywood, Washington, technology, and style. While not altogether different from what Vanity Fair already produces, inherent in that pitch was that it would be driven by a younger, charismatic leader who would not be shy about mixing it up with the figures on the front pages of the magazine.

In his first several weeks on the job, Guiducci has made his presence felt. He’s spent long hours at the office, arriving early and inundating the inboxes of his staff with various requests.

Earlier this month, he announced that he was shuttering several verticals and laying off the longtime film and entertainment writers Richard Lawson, David Canfield, and Anthony Breznican. In an internal memo first reported by Variety, Guiducci emphasized that he wants Vanity Fair to lean away from commodity Hollywood coverage and focus on editorially distinct output. Readers and subscribers immediately expressed outrage and dismay at the firings, one person familiar with the complaints told Semafor.

In the coming months, Guiducci hopes to make some splashy hires to replace the writers and editors who have been laid off or quit. By the time he launches his first issue in November, he’s hoping to have columnists dedicated to covering Hollywood, AI, Washington and style. He has had conversations with Olivia Nuzzi about a role writing for the magazine. (Nuzzi left New York Magazine following an undisclosed relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a recent presidential candidate.) Puck’s Matt Belloni has his hands full with a podcast and a team of staff, but that hasn’t stopped Guiducci from asking what it would take to hire him.

He’s approached New York Times writer Jazmine Hughes and New York Magazine writer Allison P. Davis. In Hollywood, he’s met with the LA Times’ Amy Kaufman and The Hollywood Reporter’s Chris Gardner. He wants the popular newsletter writers Emily Sundberg and Oliver Darcy to contribute, as well as How Long Gone co-host and journalist Chris Black. In recent weeks, Jonathan Capehart has stopped by the office.

Guiducci is also hoping to adjust the publication’s editorial direction.

Carter’s personal beef with Trump powered some of the publication’s antipathy towards him the first time around; under Jones, the magazine found that critical pieces about Trump were traffic and subscription drivers, and aligned with many of the editorial sensibilities of staff. Under Jones, Vanity Fair also attempted to capture increased cultural interest in diversity and marginalized voices, highlighting figures that may have been overlooked in a previous era of the magazine.

But the post-COVID cultural swing to the right, capped by Trump’s election in 2024, has impressed upon the new editor that Vanity Fair needs to change who appears in its pages. Guiducci’s mandate to rethink the publication’s relationship with power and celebrity is likely to mean a greater openmindedness to seeking access to figures likely to repel magazine’s liberal readers. He’s told people he’s potentially interested in putting Melania Trump on the cover.

Guiducci is also at work on cosmetic changes. He has been examining the archive for editorial ideas and visual inspiration, and when his first issue drops later this year, Vanity Fair will likely have an updated visual style, possibly including a tweaked logo.

Guiducci is looking to put his stamp on the Met Gala, which he’d closely managed for years. Three people familiar with the planning told Semafor that Guiducci also is rethinking the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, the tentpole event of the weekend and a massive moneymaker for the magazine. While acknowledging its importance as a revenue driver and one-of-a-kind marketing opportunity, Condé Nast executives have also expressed in recent years that it costs too much money; this year’s party may be more limited and exclusive than in the recent past.