Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in English
Radhika Jones will depart as editor in chief of Conde Nast‘s Vanity Fair this spring, she told staffers Thursday.
Jones joined Vanity Fair in 2017. Formerly she was the editor of the New York Times books section. Jones succeeded Graydon Carter, who stepped down after 25 years at the publication. Jones was the first female editor of Vanity Fair since Tina Brown served as the magazine’s editor from 1984 until 1992.
“Those of you who know me well know that I can be a little restless, once a mission is accomplished,” Jones wrote in the memo to Vanity Fair staffers. “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.”
Here is the memo Jones sent to VF staffers Thursday:
Hello all,
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Radhika
