"Graydon Carter"

What It Covers

Graydon Carter discusses his career founding Spy Magazine and editing Vanity Fair for twenty-five years, plus his current media venture Airmail, cultural shifts in journalism, and predictions for social media's future backlash.

Key Questions Answered

• •Magazine transition strategy: Airmail succeeded by building digital-first from inception rather than converting legacy print formats, designed by magazine veterans as weekend edition of non-existent international newspaper avoiding Boston-Washington corridor news saturation.
• •Cultural pendulum theory: America experiences wider cultural swings than Britain or Canada—the investment banker ethos peaked harder in New York than Vancouver, love movement stronger in San Francisco than Toronto—current extremes will settle toward middle ground.
• •Privacy currency prediction: Private lives will gain greater social cache within three to five years as backlash against oversharing intensifies, similar to vinyl's resurgence—young people will adopt specialty visual magazines costing twenty dollars with thick paper.
• •Editorial survival approach: Vanity Fair's success came from avoiding office drama, waiting two years before removing three troublemakers, writing monthly thank-you notes to contributors and advertisers, and assembling writers like Christopher Hitchens with photographers like Annie Leibovitz.