Mike Hogan Exits Vanity Fair After 25 Years

Michael Hogan, Vanity Fair’s executive digital director, is leaving after 25 years with the publication. The news comes weeks after editor-in-chief Radhika Jones stepped down.

“Some news! After 25 wonderful years—literally half my life—at Vanity Fair, I’m finally ready to call it a night,” Hogan posted to his LinkedIn on Monday. “Looking back, I can say two things with absolute confidence: my colleagues and I did some excellent work, and we had a ridiculously good time doing it. From answering Wayne Lawson’s phone and doing Dominick Dunne’s expenses to editing the Jen Aniston and Suri Cruise cover stories, turbo-charging VF.com and launching three verticals, covering five presidents and six predidencies, co-hosting Little Gold Men and the Oscar Party livestream, writing about my Twin Peaks obsession for the upcoming June issue, and accompanying Katherine Eban to collect a George Polk Award, it’s been one pinch-me moment after another. I’ll miss working with the best in the business, but I’m psyched for what’s next—starting with a little time off while my amazing wife, Elise Jordan, embarks on an exciting new venture as co-host of MSNBC’s The Weekend: Primetime. Onward!”

Hogan’s exit comes on the heels of editor-in-chief Radhika Jones’ exit in early April. Jones told staff in a memo obtained by TheWrap.

“At the end of every year, I look over the memo I wrote back in 2017 when I was interviewing to be the editor of Vanity Fair, as a way to remember the goals I had and check my progress. Last year, somewhat to my surprise, I realized that — with your help — I had accomplished virtually all of those goals,” she began her message. “Vanity Fair is a thriving modern publication with incisive, lively reporting; a vast and highly engaging social media audience; a studio business with terrific projects under our belt and in the works on FX, Amazon, Netflix and more; a video powerhouse; and an epic party machine, to which this year’s Oscar party (my seventh!) was testament. We are fully at home in our worlds.”

“It was gratifying, but also a little jarring, to feel like I could check off those boxes. And simultaneously I began to feel, more powerfully, the pull of new goals in my life, around family and friends and writing and other ways to make an impact,” Jones continued. “Those of you who know me well know that I can be a little restless, once a mission is accomplished. And I have always had a horror of staying too long at the party. So I’ve made the decision to leave Vanity Fair this spring.”

“It was a difficult decision, because it has been a tremendous privilege to lead this team. Our work has been a beacon. We have published incredible writing, by everyone from Jesmyn Ward to James Pogue,” she noted. “Just last night I went to the Whitney Museum and saw Amy Sherald’s painting of Breonna Taylor, hanging prominently in her new show, ‘American Sublime.’ That piece of art would not exist in the world had we not commissioned it for the cover of our September 2020 issue, and publishing it remains one of the proudest moments of my whole career — and one of many proud moments here at Vanity Fair.”

“I have loved working with you all, for all the reasons you know. We’ve come through a lot of challenges, from Covid on, for which we had no playbook; we wrote our own. I will always be grateful to David Remnick for bringing me in the door, to Anna Wintour and Roger Lynch for their support over the years, and to the Newhouse family for their stewardship of these magazines,” Jones concluded. “I will want to say goodbye and thank each of you individually over the days to come. For now, know that I admire you all, I believe in you, and I will be rooting for you and for Vanity Fair.”

Hogan anchored lot of Vanity Fair’s Hollywood coverage. Time will tell what’s next for the seasoned editor as well as who will step into his shoes as Executive Digital Director.

The post Mike Hogan Exits Vanity Fair After 25 Years appeared first on TheWrap.