'Michael Grynbaum chronicles the rise and fall of a media juggernaut owner of glossy magazines
such as Vogue Vanity Fair the New Yorker and GQ weaving tight reporting and outrageous
gossip with a thoughtful cultural history.' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Glamour! Taste! Prestige!
Monsters! I loved this gorgeous romp through a lost world' MARINA HYDE 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 American publishing empire Condé Nast
and its magazines - including Vogue Vanity Fair the New Yorker and GQ - defined how to live
the good life with its editors and writers creating a vision of luxury and sophistication that
shaped cultural and consumer trends and political beliefs the world over. The ultimate
influencers Condé Nast amassed great power 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 and venerated names like Anna Wintour Tina Brown and Graydon Carter Empire of the
Elite is a groundbreaking exploration of how Condé Nast established itself as a global
authority. But it is also a cautionary tale exposing how class hubris and technological
change shook the dominance of the old media gatekeepers even as Condé Nast's aesthetic and
prestige remain undeniably influential to this day.
