From a Washington Post story by Samantha Chery and Herb Scribner headlined “Wall Street Journal Magazine editor to resign”:
The leader of one of the few newspaper magazines left in the country, Wall Street Journal Magazine editor in chief Kristina O’Neill, announced that she will be leaving the company after more than a decade in the role.
An email informed Journal staff that O’Neill will depart this summer and did not mention plans to replace her at the paper’s only magazine, which publishes once a month.
“This is a bittersweet moment for me,” O’Neill was quoted as saying in the email, which was sent by the newspaper’s editor in chief Emma Tucker. “I’m leaving with an immense sense of pride for everything we accomplished and look forward to what’s next.”
O’Neill was the third person to take the helm of the fashion-and-lifestyle-focused magazine, which launched in 2008. It was part of an effort by Rupert Murdoch, who indirectly controls the Journal as well as media giants such as Fox News, to compete with the New York Times Magazine.
She oversaw the magazine’s relaunch in 2012 and established its presence in the fashion world, most recently with the creation of WSJ’s Style News Desk. O’Neill tapped big names to write columns for the magazine, including former basketball player Dwyane Wade and Karl Lagerfeld, the late fashion designer whose work will be the focus of this year’s Met Gala. She also took charge of the magazine’s annual Innovator Awards, which has honored arts-and-culture luminaries since 2011.
“Kristina transformed the magazine into a global aesthetics icon and her profound influence will continue to resonate within the WSJ and far beyond,” Robert Thomson, chief executive of Journal parent company News Corp, said. “Her intuition, her judgment, her wit, her conscience and her creativity radiated from every page and every day.”
Before joining the Journal in 2012, O’Neill was executive editor of Harper’s Bazaar and worked at New York Magazine and Time Out New York.
Only a handful of U.S. magazines attached to daily newspapers are still in circulation, including inserts at the Boston Globe and the New York Times, though those publications run weekly and are more general-interest than the Journal’s version.
The Washington Post shuttered its magazine and laid off the section’s 10 employees late last year. Fashion outlet Paper Magazine laid off its entire staff Wednesday due to economic head winds.
Samantha Chery is a breaking news reporter in Features. Previously, she was a multiplatform editor for The Washington Post’s gender and identity team. She joined The Post in 2022 as a reporting intern for the Features desk.
Herb Scribner is a breaking news reporter for features at The Washington Post. He previously worked at Axios, where he wrote about breaking news in politics, entertainment and sports.
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