>> Wintour Hires Obama Online Campaign Masterminds for Vogue.com —Last week, it came out that Elle pulled ahead of Vogue this year in terms of ad pages — 2,100 to 1,990, respectively — which Vogue SVP and publishing director Tom Florio chalked up to his reluctance to "heavily discount and use our editors to sell ad pages. What we saw happen this year, which we haven’t seen in a while, is the discounts were approaching 70 percent. Some of the deals that were being done were just crazy." This week, meanwhile, Anna Wintour is continuing to beef up Vogue's web presence — a spokesman confirmed that Blue State Digital, which masterminded Barack Obama's online campaign, has been hired to work on Vogue.com business and editorial sides, focusing on reader and subscriber outreach. [WWD, Jezebel]

>>  Anna Wintour, Tom Florio Get New Gigs —Changes are happening all around for Anna Wintour — her fundraising efforts and continual Obama administration support have earned her one of the 25 spots on the new President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.  The committee, which also includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Forrest Whitaker, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Yo-Yo Ma, and Bryan Lourd, co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency, will advise the President on how to expand the role of arts in society.  She's also getting a new colleague: Vogue and Teen Vogue publisher Tom Florio is becoming SVP and publishing director at Conde Nast, adding Bon Appetit and Conde Nast Traveler to his portfolio, while Susan Plagemann, VP and Marie Claire publisher, will report to him as the new VP and publisher of Vogue starting Jan. 4. [WWD, WWD]

>> You've got to love Anna Wintour's excuse Rolodex — there's a new article in Forbes about how Vogue's publisher is using Model.Live to keep the magazine relevent — and Anna wasn't available for comment because she's "attending Fashion Weeks in Paris and Milan." Funny thing is, the article came out yesterday, and Milan Fashion Week doesn't start until Saturday . . . with Paris following after that.

But nevermind mincing details — let's look at the bigger picture.  Vogue still makes its money from print ad pages, but this year's subscriptions are down — and Tom Florio, the aforementioned publisher, is worried about keeping Vogue relevent for the next generation.  That's where Model.Live comes in — Florio created the show with his 16-year-old daughter in mind — without Anna Wintour's involvement: "I'm comfortable with it, because I feel that the principals of what we're doing are based on the same principals as the brand."

He says if Anna didn't like where the content was going, he would kill it, and a Conde Nast spokesperson said that Wintour understands Vogue.TV is run by the business department and stays informed about its programs. But there are a couple of concerns: Will partnering with brands like Express (which sponsors Model.Live) dilute the Vogue brand?  And: If online video series produced by the business side become big moneymakers for Vogue, will Anna's sphere of influence at the company be diminished?
*image: source