YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN: Style.com is under the Vogue umbrella — again. WWD has learned of a new reporting structure at the fashion Web site that has both its editor in chief and publisher reporting to Vogue’s higher-ups. Style.com publisher Matt Rice reports to Vogue publisher Susan Plagemann, while editor in chief Dirk Standen reports to Vogue editor in chief and Condé Nast artistic director Anna Wintour.
Editors reporting to Wintour isn’t exactly new; the majority of Condé Nast editors do so. But Rice’s reporting to Plagemann, not president Bob Sauerberg, indicates a shift in strategy for the Web site. The new reporting structure was confirmed by Condé Nast, but it declined to elaborate on the strategy for the two brands going forward.
But perhaps one need look no further than Bon Appétit and Epicurious. Condé Nast has a similar structure, with Bon Appétit editor in chief Adam Rapoport and publisher Pamela Drucker Mann overseeing the recipe-centric Web site. Sources told WWD that the merger of those two sites was, in part, to help beef up Bon Appétit’s Web traffic. It also eliminated redundancies in Condé’s portfolio, as Epicurious produced similar content as its marquee food print title.
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Although it is not yet evident whether Vogue will take charge of Style.com in that way, it is an ironic homecoming for Style.com.
Fourteen years ago, the site was established as the online home of Vogue and W magazines. But Wintour lobbied for years for her own site for Vogue, and so, in 2010, Style.com was pushed out of Condé Nast to Fairchild Fashion Media. It was shuffled back to Condé this summer, when Fairchild was sold to Penske Media Corp.
For Vogue, the summer also marked an important point in its digital history when the magazine relaunched its Web site. How Wintour will work with Standen has yet to be seen, but the Vogue editor appears to have wasted little time. She was spotted meeting with Standen at Style.com’s office in Midtown on Wednesday morning.
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