Condé Nast, founded in 1909 by publisher Condé Montrose Nast, is a global mass media company owned by Advance Publications. They have a footprint of more than 1 billion customers in 32 markets through print, digital video and social media platforms, and are responsible for brands such as Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Vanity Fair, and many others. In 2011, the company launched the Conde Nast Entertainment division, tasked with developing film, television, social and digital video, and virtual reality content. Conde Nast has a global audience and publish a wide variety of magazines, from fashion and beauty to interiors and cooking. Conde Nast is considered to be the originator of the “class publication”, a type of magazine that focuses on a particular social group or interest, instead of publishing magazines simply to appeal to the largest amount of people possible.
Conde Montrose Nast was one of the world’s most successful publishers, and his legacy lives on today. He set a new standard for fashion and style industry, pioneering new techniques in marketing, advertising and printing. Nast was the first publisher to produce international editions of his magazines, for example British, Italian, Singaporean, and Scandinavian editions of Vogue. As of 2025, there are currently 28 editions of Vogue all across the globe.
Nast changed the fashion photography industry forever, by hiring well respected photographers and directing them to take higher quality, more relaxed and realistic photos. Also, Nast purchased and renovated a printing plant in Connecticut, earning Conde Nast a reputation of technical excellence, and creating several innovations in printing technology.
VOGUE
Arguably the most well known brand owned by Conde Nast, Vogue was the first magazine to be published under Conde Nast in 1909. Vogue is a monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers style news, mainly Haute Couture fashion and luxury beauty. Vogue also has a wide range of sections in the magazine such as Vogue weddings, Vogue children, and Vogue interior. Vogue is well known for its stylish and chic front covers that feature a variety of celebrities, from actors and musicians to supermodels and fashion designers. The majority of readers (67.5%) are female, with the most popular age group being 25-34 years old.
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| Examples of Vogue covers. |
GLAMOUR
Glamour is an international women’s magazine published by Conde Nast from 1939 to 2019. Due to a decreasing number of subscribers, the last print edition of Glamour was published in January of 2019, and the brand is now focused on digital journalism on both their website and their newsletter. When Glamour was introduced, it’s objective was to recognise and promote the Hollywood industry’s impact on fashion, beauty, and glamour, attempting to bring those trends to the average woman. Nast used a new layout format for this magazine called a “crowded page”, which was a stark juxtaposition to the usual magazine page composition style Nast used of white pages with only one or two photos per page. Glamour focuses on a variety of topics, including fashion, beauty, entertainment, wellness and travel. Glamour magazine has a 68% female readership, with the average age of readers being between 25-34 years old.
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| Examples of Glamour covers before they went out of print. |
THE NEW YORKER
The New Yorker is an American magazine published since 1925 that features journalism, criticism, essays and poetry. The New Yorker has developed a reputation over the years for publishing serious essays and long form journalism. The covers of the New Yorker are often illustrated instead of featuring photography, which makes the brand stand out from the rest. The New Yorker has a 59% female to 41% male readership, and is most popular with both 25-34 year olds and 55-64 year olds, which proves that this magazine has a wide target audience.
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| Covers of The New Yorker magazine. |
