Glitzy Tina Brown to Edit Venerable New Yorker

In a major publishing shake-up, Tina Brown, editor of Vanity Fair, will relinquish her post and take over the venerable but troubled New Yorker this fall, it was announced Tuesday.

Robert Gottlieb, current editor-in-chief of the New Yorker, said he was stepping down because of “conceptual differences” over the magazine’s future with S.I. (Si) Newhouse, the media tycoon whose family owns both publications.

Meanwhile, Graydon Carter, co-founder of Spy magazine and now editor of the New York Observer, a city weekly, will take over Brown’s job at Vanity Fair, according to a statement issued by Newhouse’s company, Advance Communications Inc.

Newhouse praised Gottlieb’s five years at the New Yorker, but noted that “over the years, Bob and I have discussed further evolution of the New Yorker, and these discussions have brought to light conceptual differences that we have been unable to resolve.”

In a separate statement, Gottlieb said he had decided to resign a month ago, noting that “I would have been doing no one a favor to work against the evolution that Si feels is necessary.”

Just what those changes may be are the subject of controversy. Brown’s appointment was hailed by some as a shrewd move, and Newhouse praised her as “the finest magazine journalist in the world today.”

But for others it was tantamount to putting Hugh Hefner in charge of National Geographic.

During Brown’s eight-year tenure at Vanity Fair, she turned a struggling publication into one of America’s most glittering successes. Her taste for aggressive, celebrity journalism and creative photo layout has been widely imitated and helped push circulation from 259,000 to 930,000.

Brown is married to Harold Evans, president and publisher of Random House, which is also owned by Newhouse. The two are a bona fide power couple in the New York publishing scene and Brown has become a news personality in her own right. Now, she’s taking over the nation’s most prestigious literary magazine, a proud publication facing corporate pressures to increase its revenues.

“There was certainly some trepidation when this move was announced,” said Andy Logan, the New Yorker’s longtime City Hall correspondent, referring to a crowded staff meeting Tuesday at which Newhouse announced the editorial changes. “But nobody’s in mourning, because we really don’t know what it means.”

At the meeting, Logan added, Newhouse said Gottlieb had brought a “conservative” approach to the magazine, and suggested that more dramatic changes were in the offing. But Newhouse refused to be more specific.

For her part, Brown issued a statement calling the move a personal challenge, and pledged that she would “preserve the New Yorker’s literary and intellectual standards . . . and introduce it to a new generation of readers.”

If the mood was somber at the New Yorker, it was tearful at Vanity Fair, where astonished staff members gathered to hear Brown bid them farewell. Some employees burst into tears, and the editor voiced regret that she would not be at the helm for the magazine’s 10th anniversary under her leadership.

Tuesday’s announcements were only the latest examples of Newhouse’s revolving door policy for editors who fail to deliver. Five years ago, he sacked William Shawn, longtime editor of the New Yorker, saying the magazine needed new blood. The move drew bitter protests from veteran writers for the magazine, but under Gottlieb, the New Yorker remained basically the same.

Now, some observers question whether Brown’s go-go style is suited to the sober, often long-winded magazine that has published some of the greatest names in American letters. The 67-year-old weekly has provided a forum for John Updike, Ann Beattie, Louise Erdrich, Robert Caro, Woody Allen, Truman Capote, J.D. Salinger, James Baldwin, poet William Matthews and many others.

Its circulation has hovered at or near 625,000 for several years, and Newhouse, who bought the New Yorker in 1985, has long been determined to boost profits.

He, Brown and Gottlieb refused to make further statements, but others were quick to comment.

“I just can’t see this making much sense for Tina, and it looks like a step down,” said one Random House official, who asked not to be identified.

“Here she is, running a flashy, very successful magazine, and now she’s coming over to the New Yorker. I imagine some of those correspondents could eat her up alive if she tries to overhaul what they do.”

Others say Newhouse will not be denied. A diminutive, intense man, his $10-billion media holdings include magazines such as Vogue, Conde Nast Traveler, Parade, GQ, Mademoiselle, and Self. In recent years, he fired Vogue’s Grace Mirabella and Self’s Anthea Disney over editorial differences.

Newhouse, 64, has also hired and fired editors at his book holdings, which include Random House, Alfred I. Knopf, Crown, Times Books, Villard, Pantheon and Vintage. Those moves triggered angry protests, but nothing like the hand-wringing in literary circles over his 1987 firing of Shawn.

Gottlieb, the former editor-in-chief of Knopf books, introduced fairly minor changes at the New Yorker, such as special advertising sections, TV ads and the marketing of T-shirts. The magazine experienced modest subscription gains under his leadership, according to a New Yorker staffer.

If Brown’s appointment has raised eyebrows, Carter’s installation at Vanity Fair seems to represent a continuum.