The executive suite at Conde Nast, publisher of Vogue and Vanity Fair, experienced a shakeup Wednesday that leaves Vogue Editor Anna Wintour as the unchallenged top editorial voice at the company and moving Conde Nast closer to an eventual transition in the CEO role.
The company said its longtime editorial director, Tom Wallace, and its chief operating officer and CFO, John Bellando, would both be leaving the company.
Conde Nast is not explicitly naming a new editorial director. Instead, Vogue Editor Anna Wintour, who was named artistic director at Conde Nast last year, "will ensure that our content and culture remain at the forefront of our industry," CEO Chuck Townsend said in a staff email on Wednesday.
At the same time, Conde Nast President Bob Sauerberg is taking on a broader role, adding direct responsibility for the Conde Nast Media Group as well as revenue growth at individual brands. Lou Cona, the company's chief revenue officer and president of the media group, will now report to Mr. Sauerberg instead of Mr. Townsend, the CEO of Conde Nast since 2004.
Publishers that had reported to Mr. Townsend will also now report to Mr. Sauerberg, who was promoted to president in 2010, assuming the role from Mr. Townsend.
"This expands his areas of responsibility beyond the management of digital, technology, consumer marketing, business development, corporate administration and Conde Nast Entertainment," Mr. Townsend said in his email to employees.
"Bob will be making other key announcements shortly about our business direction and strategy going forward," he added.
Replacing Mr. Bellando as CFO is David Geithner, a former Time Inc. executive who left earlier this year following a reshuffling at the publisher of People and Sport Illustrated.
Mr. Wallace, a former editor in chief of Conde Nast Traveler magazine, became editorial director of Conde Nast in 2005, overseeing the editorial direction of the company's magazines. In the last six months, Mr. Wallace steered the development of a roughly 4,000-word internal document on Conde Nast's handling of native advertising.
Some at the company, however, believed Ms. Wintour had been intruding on Mr. Wallace's turf. Since taking on the artistic director role, Ms. Wintour helped lead the redesign of Lucky magazine and consulted on the editorial direction of Glamour, Self and Conde Nast Traveler magazines.
"I don't know if anyone here can really define their roles," a Conde Nast publisher told Ad Age in May.
Ad pages across the entire Conde Nast portfolio were down nearly 6% through the July issues of their monthly titles and the June issues of The New Yorker, according to stats from the Media Industry Newsletter.
At Hearst, publisher of Cosmopolitan and Esquire, print ad pages at its monthlies were down almost 5%. Time Inc., the nation's largest magazine publisher, saw ad pages dip about 6%.
