Empire of the Elite

For decades, one company in New York told the world what to buy, value, wear, eat, and even what to think.

From its glitzy heyday in the 1980s through to the 2000s, the American publishing empire Conde Nast and its magazines — including Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and GQ — defined how to live the good life. Its editors and writers created a vision of luxury and sophistication that shaped cultural and consumer trends, intellectual attitudes, and political beliefs the world over.

They were the ultimate influencers, before the internet changed everything. Conde Nast had amassed great power and influence but failed to foresee and keep up with the digital revolution that would reduce it to a shadow of its former self.

Full of fresh insider reporting, Empire of the Elite brings to life venerated and feared names like Anna Wintour, Tina Brown, and Graydon Carter, who became celebrities in their own right. It is a groundbreaking exploration of how Conde Nast established itself as a global authority in taste and prestige. It is also a cautionary tale, exposing how class, hubris, and technological change shook the dominance of the old media gatekeepers, even as Conde Nast's aesthetic and status-conscious ethos remains undeniably influential to this day.