>> After all the rumors on Gawker today that Anna Wintour was going to be replaced as editor-in-chief of Vogue by Carine Roitfeld starting in January 2009, Si Newhouse decided to put the talk to rest.  After receiving a copy of the original Gawker item via fax in Europe, he denied through a spokeswoman that anything was amuck: "It’s the silliest rumor I ever heard. There is no truth to it."

When asked about the possibility of her mother Carine replacing Anna a couple of weeks ago, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld also dismissed the possibility: "I don’t know how that rumor started.  She loves Paris too much — she’d never leave."

The general consensus seems to be that Carine wouldn't be a good fit for Vogue — unless there were some massive changes in the prioritities of ad sales, circulation size, and creative appearance made — but as for Anna being on the outs?  Who knows . . . what executive would do anything but deny a rumor before he's ready for it to be outed?

UPDATE: Over at Fashion Week Daily, they've heard another editor's name floated around as Anna's possible replacement — one who sounds like she is from within the magazine — she trains the incoming Vogue editors and is "not too tall, not too short, 'deplores plastic surgery' and is sporting a fresh new fringe."  My best guess for promoting someone within Vogue would have to ride with Sally Singer.
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>> Did Lauren Weisberger predict the future?  The Devil Wears Prada had Miranda Priestly, the Anna Wintour character, being replaced by Jacqueline Follet, the Carine Roitfeld character — until Miranda maneuvered her way out of it — and according to rumors, that might just be what is in the works in real life.

Talk of Anna Wintour's retirement has been running rampant, especially with Anna's deflated "leave me alone" response when asked about the retirement rumors, and her daughter Bee Shaffer's recent comment about how she would be "staying far away from Vogue."  Last night, Conde Nast insiders were overheard talking about how Si Newhouse left early for his three-week December vacation in Vienna — the one during which he usually makes big strategical changes in the company — purportedly to meet in Paris with Carine Roitfeld and finalize details about her moving to New York and taking over at Vogue at the beginning of next year.

Wintour may well be on the outs — she has been at the magazine twenty years, her domain at Conde Nast shrunk recently, Vogue's ad pages dropped this year, and her supposed $2 million per year salary could be seen as a hindrance in this economy — but is Carine the right fit?  She loves being subversive and has a substantially smaller circulation at Vogue Paris — two things that wouldn't fly with American Vogue, unless Si really is looking for the magazine to be entirely restructured.  But would Carine want to leave all the freedom she has now behind?  She'd definitely be scrutinized much more closely at Vogue.  And what about staff?  The editors at Vogue Paris and Vogue have entirely different styles and personalities.  But her daughter, Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, does live in New York . . .
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>> BLOWING THE COVER — Rumors have already placed Blake Lively on the February 2009 cover of Vogue and Michelle Obama on the March 2009 cover, but the newest talk is looking even further down the line.  Since Kate Moss is co-chairing next May's "Model as Muse" Costume Institute Gala, it's looking like she will be getting a Vogue cover around that time.  With the gala's theme in mind, "certain legendary supermodels felt they should have gotten the call to co-host themselves," so imagine if Kate ends up not sharing the Vogue cover either . . . [TI]
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>> Is Anna Wintour ready to put the cap at twenty years of Vogue?  Her contract is said to be up soon, according to a Page Six source, and she's thinking of retiring: "She feels she's done it all and had enough. She has been putting out feelers to intimate friends recommending a possible replacement to Si Newhouse. She's so tired out, she just let Men's Vogue close instead of fighting for it."

This news is especially timely, since Vogue's decreasing ad numbers just came out, and Si Newhouse is about to take his annual month-long European sabbatical in December — the one where he figures out what at Conde Nast needs fixing and then comes back in January, the month when he typically hires and fires, making big changes at the company.

Si is famous for his dislike of confrontation, and many of his editors in the past have said their first inkling of trouble was when they were fired — the editor Anna replaced at Vogue, Grace Mirabella, was never given a reason for her dismissal, and found out about it from a television report.

Sudden and unforeseen dismissal doesn't seem a way Anna would want to go — she always has to be on top of her game — so retirement seems more in character.  A rep denies the reports, but I'm more curious about these replacements she's suggested.  Honestly, who could instill the fascination and fear that Anna can?
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>> INSIDER WIRE —The results are in and, as expected, it's not looking pretty.  A number of fashion magazines saw their ad pages drop by double-digits in 2008: W lost 12.7 percent, Teen Vogue is down 10.2 percent, and Vogue, which had a record-breaking year in 2007, declined 9.6 percent.  For the latter, the results burn even more, as Elle gained 3.2 percent over 2007, and Harper's Bazaar only lost 0.3%. 

Granted, in overall numbers, Vogue (2,893 ad pages for 2008), still trumps Elle (2,578) and Harper's Bazaar (2,067), but the losing trend can't be good — maybe the rumored Michelle Obama and Blake Lively covers will give them the boost they need in 2009? [WWD]

>> BLOWING THE COVER —Desperate times call for desperate measures, and fashion magazines are playing that aphorism out as we speak.  Elle is looking to over-the-top reality show Stylista to bump its numbers, and Vogue has plastered top-selling face Jennifer Aniston on its December 2008 cover, along with the gratuitous "What Angelina did was very uncool" quote.  Any given Vogue issue has its fair share of haters, but this time, instead of being upset with the cover Photoshopping, readers are accusing the magazine of stooping to an Us Weekly level to ensure its sales. [Fashionista]

>> Eric Wilson's article in The New York Times today about those mysterious items in fashion magazines listed as "price upon request" — turns out a lot of them never went into production and aren't available for purchase — is especially ironic, considering a conversation Elle editors Joe Zee and Anne Slowey had on last night's episode of Stylista.

In the clip below, the show's contestants are presenting the trend page they created for the magazine, full of product, but Anne notices that they forgot to add in the shopping credits: "What's that all about?"  One of the contestants tries to explain that she "didn't think it would be okay to make up prices" but Anne retorts that on a shopping page, the credits are "imperative . . . it's the only reason why we exist as a fashion magazine."  Joe backs her up — "Credits are key" — and then Anne ends the conversation with a sarcastic, "I want everything on this page, but I don't know where to buy it."

Funny she should say that . . . »

>> INSIDER WIRE —Anna Wintour was spotted making the trek to vote yesterday, but Andre Leon Talley went even further, appearing in the VIP section at Crandon Park last night to witness Barack Obama's acceptance speech in person.  Bets are already being placed on when Michelle Obama will get her Vogue cover — February would be perfectly timed with the inauguration, and perhaps she'd be in another Narcisco Rodriguez dress since she favored the designer last night?  [FWD]

>> Anna Wintour is stepping out into a new, less plentiful, world: Conde Nast editors have been told to cut their staffs and budgets each by five percent, which means Vogue, Teen Vogue, and W will all be trimming some fat.  In the past, the Conde Nast philosophy has been to place the burden of cutbacks on the titles performing least well, but this time, it's not so — "This has a little more urgency on some level," a source told The New York Observer — so Vogue is definitely included.

Meanwhile, one of her pet projects, Men's Vogue, is being scaled back from ten issues to two issues a year, with its operations being folded back into Vogue, it was announced today.  Before the official word came, a source predicted that Men's Vogue would be a "small, small, small version of what it is.  And the small version will exist for nothing more than for Anna to save face."

The other magazine Anna is editorial director of, Teen Vogue, is trying out a new way to keep those ad dollars coming.  Nov. 28 through Dec. 26, the magazine is hosting a pop-up shop, The Haute Spot, in the Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey, where girls will be able to relax, try on clothes, drink smoothies, and charge their cellphones and iPods; over twenty of their advertisers are participating.  If it's successful, maybe it will ease some of the the burn Anna is feeling after the Men's Vogue fiasco.
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