in vogue
New Book Charts the Heyday of the Condé Nast ‘Empire’
The book comes after Anna Wintour's departure as editor-in-chief of Vogue
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July 17, 2025
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With Anna Wintour ending her day-to-day duties as editor of Vogue, publishing giant Conde Nast is going through some changes, but a new book charts the halcyon days of the publisher behind Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and GQ. Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, was written by New York Times journalist Michael Grynbaum and is available now.
The book charts the “glitzy heyday” of Conde Nast from the 1980s through the 2000s, a mostly bygone era when magazines held huge cultural clout and could afford to spend lavishly, before the era of shrinking ad revenue and influencers. In addition to the hardcover, it’s available as an ebook or audiobook.
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According to publisher Simon & Schuster, “the book is full of fresh behind-the-scenes reporting about a plethora of boldface names and sets out to explain how Condé Nast established itself as a de facto American aristocracy, anointing an elite and dictating the culture they presided over.”
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Empire of the Elite (Audiobook)
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You can also listen to the audiobook version, narrated by Grynbaum and Jacques Roy. Purchase the audiobook download for $17 or listen to it for just $0.99 as part of a new Audible deal that gets you three months of access for under $1 a month. See full details here.
Notably, this isn’t the only book released this year that takes a nostalgic lens to Condé Nast’s legacy. Longtime Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, who left the publication in 2017, penned When the Going Was Good, which was released in March of this year.
Like Empire of the Elite, When the Going Was Good is a wistful nod to “the Last Golden Age of Magazines,” as the subtitle to Graydon’s memoir puts it.
When the Going Was Good
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When the Going Was Good is available as a hardcover, ebook, or as an audiobook narrated by the author.
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