A NEW SNAPPER: The legacy of Richard Avedon — The New Yorker’s first-ever staff photographer — isn’t easily carried on, but since his death four years ago, the magazine has been trying. Recently, the title signed Platon, whom New Yorker editor David Remnick described as being “clearly influenced by Avedon,” to be a staff photographer alongside Martin Schoeller and Robert Polidori, and though he’s already shot several assignments (among them, the barebacked photographs of Republican operative Roger Stone), this week will bring particular prominence. A 16-page portfolio of volunteer military members at various stages of their tours of duty accompanies a story by William Finnegan about post-traumatic stress disorder.
Remnick, who has written extensively on Russia, told WWD that he was drawn in particular to Platon’s cover portrait of Vladimir Putin as Time’s Person of the Year in 2007. “All the withheld intelligence and cunning. The coldness of those eyes. I found that startling,” he said. Platon’s contract takes him off the market for virtually all general-interest magazines, though he has a special provision to keep shooting for Time.
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As for Platon himself, Remnick said: “He’s a fantastic guy to start with. As Groucho Marx used to say, well over 4 feet, orange leather jacket, orange sneakers….And he calls me ‘top man.’” — Irin Carmon
DOT-COM CATCH UP: Breaking financial news, exclusive baby photos and a fiery presidential race are paying off in spades for Web sites owned by Time Inc. Executive vice president John Squires revealed on Friday during Time Inc.’s latest digital summit that people.com passed tmz.com last month for the first time with 11.5 million unique visitors, thanks to those exclusive, multimillion-dollar photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s twin newborns, Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon. According to the company, people.com is now the number-two celebrity Web site, behind Yahoo’s OMG in uniques. Squires also said cnnmoney.com saw a significant bump in traffic — a 66 percent increase in uniques — last week as reporters from Fortune, Money and CNN posted both breaking headlines from Wall Street and service stories on investing. Squires noted that time.com is getting a boost in part from political analyst Mark Halperin’s video blog. Time.com has recorded 4 million daily weekday page views so far in September, up from 2.7 million in the prior month, during a time when Halperin filed breaking news on the increasingly heated presidential election.
Also at the meeting, health.com reported a surge in traffic since its redesign in May, and essence.com gave a preview of its redesigned site, part of which was unveiled last week. Next year, the site will add original television programming through its partnership with Telepictures, a radio channel, and a music video archive. U.K. music Web site nme.com, the online component of rock music magazine NME, will make a big push in the U.S. next year through more partnerships with U.S. music festivals for exclusive coverage, improved search capabilities and content sharing with other Time Inc. brands. — Stephanie D. Smith
MOVING PARTS: After surviving New York Fashion Week (and just days before the shows kicked off in Milan), several fashion magazine sales executives shuffled into new jobs. First, Rolling Stone named Alatia Bradley as associate publisher, replacing Ed Hecht, who has joined WWD as associate publisher. Bradley joined Rolling Stone from Vogue, where she was most recently luxury director. She resigned from Vogue on Thursday. Prior to Vogue, Bradley was advertising director for The New Yorker from 2005 until she moved to Vogue in February, and spent three years at Vanity Fair in several sales positions.
Details’ international fashion director Libby Conover is rejoining Elle in the same capacity. Conover spent eight months at the men’s monthly, having been hired as American fashion director before being promoted to international fashion director two months ago. Conover replaces Lily Amado Givoni, who left Elle to join Teen Vogue as executive director of international fashion and beauty. Teen Vogue also hired Armine Altiparmakian as creative director-advertising from Allure, where she held the same position. — S.D.S.
FIRST MOVES: Nina Garcia made her first hire in the fashion department at Marie Claire last week, poaching from her old stomping grounds at Elle. Nina Sterghiou will join Marie Claire as accessories director, replacing Heather Whittenberg. Sterghiou was hired full time at Elle in September 2007 as accessories editor, but freelanced for years at Harper’s Bazaar, Jane, New York, Men’s Vogue and Time Style & Design. She was also accessories editor at the defunct Vitals, which was edited by Elle’s current creative director Joe Zee. “Marie Claire is a ‘smart girl’s’ fashion magazine and I am really excited about bringing fashion and accessories in a new and cool way to a reader after my own heart,” said Sterghiou. She’ll be at the shows in Milan and Paris. — S.D.S.
TOGETHER AGAIN: For the past few weeks, designers had been in hiding to finish their spring collections. Now that fashion week is over, though, quite a few seemed more than happy to break out of their shells. On Thursday, Chris Benz, Doo-Ri Chung, Phillip Lim, Jessie Randall and Justin Giunta came to Il Cantinori, where Glamour editor in chief Cindi Leive and executive fashion director Xanthipi Joannides hosted a dinner. “Now it’s off to Paris,” said Benz, who brought along budding actress (and Sting’s daughter) Mickey Sumner.
Lindsay Price of “Lipstick Jungle,” meanwhile, was encouraging Chung to run a marathon. “I will only do a half marathon, though,” Chung said.
Each of the designers (as well as Band of Outsider’s Scott Sternberg, who couldn’t make it that night) had created a special, limited edition tote bag for Glamour’s Fashion Gives Back project, which is available at Henri Bendel and benefits Global Green U.S.A. — Marc Karimzadeh