Exclusive | Hollowed-out Cond Nast faces major obstacle to landing new CEO: Anna Wintour

Condé Nast – the home of Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker – is on the hunt for a new chief executive, but a major hurdle to finding talent is the company’s most famous exec, the “Machiavellian” Anna Wintour, insiders say.In addition to her eye for fashion, Wintour — the model for Meryl Streep’s character in “The Devil Wears Prada” — is known for being just as hard-to-please for senior management as she is for underlings.“It’s a curse,” one former Condé Nast exec told The Post.“Being compliant and pliable seems to be a requirement.”As case in point, Roger Lynch, who recently left the helm of Condé for Mattel, was ceaselessly deferential to Wintour, who he promoted to global chief content officer in 2000, sources said.

That promotion expanded Wintour’s responsibilities beyond Vogue’s US title, which she’d already turned into a taste-making powerhouse, but it also gave her broad say over Condé’s international business as a whole.Emphasizing that the next Condé CEO has to get along with Wintour, one insider said “no exec will be able to touch Vogue’s business without her signoff.” During her 38 years at Vogue, Wintour has transformed it from a high-profile magazine to a media juggernaut that includes the lucrative annual global fashion show, Vogue World, as well as the company’s partnership with the Metropolitan Museum’s buzzy Met Gala.Wintour took heat for standing by antisemitic fashion designer John Galliano, who eventually pulled out of his Met Gala exhibit in August.While she backed down in the face of widespread criticism, she’s still viewed as the dominant force at Condé Nast.“Condé Nast has become Vogue, Inc.

at this point,” the source added.“The company is a pyramid at which Anna sits at the top.”That is due in part to the fact that Lynch essentially whittled Condé to a few core brands — “Vogue,” “Wired,” “Vanity Fair” and “The New Yorker,” the person said. During his ...