Chief Correspondent, VF

Condé Nast; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanity Fair in Los Angeles is seeking a Chief Correspondent with a commanding voice to lead long-form investigations and narrative features that illuminate power across Hollywood, tech, business, politics, and culture.

The ideal candidate has 15+ years of reporting experience, a wide sourcing network, and a track record of influence. You will collaborate with editors across platforms to shape coverage and mentor younger writers.

Qualifications

• Minimum 15 years of reporting features for a major publication or platform.
• Expert voice in journalism, commentary, or public discourse with wide influence.
• Deep sourcing across industries with ability to broker insights.
• Cross-market understanding of what resonates for Vanity Fair audiences outside the US.

Responsibilities

• Lead ambitious storytelling and long-lead projects shaping discourse.
• Collaborate with Deputy Editor and Global Editorial Director on editorial strategy.
• Bring fresh angles and contextualize stories across industries and platforms.
• Break news with original reporting and Insider knowledge, with autonomy.
• Represent Vanity Fair in media, events, and partnerships; extend reach across formats.
• Mentor writers and develop editorial thinking across the team.

Skills

Journalism experience

Public discourse influence

Established audience

Cross-market understanding

Dynamic prose

Team collaboration

Job description

Vanity Fair holds a mirror to society by celebrating the best of global culture and investigating the forces that propel it. Pop culture can be profound and current affairs can be ridiculous. Our cast of characters is wide-ranging, wildly diverse, always exceptional, and quite often, with great style. In every medium, Vanity Fair harnesses the tensions of modern life.

Job Description

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Chief Correspondent, Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair is seeking a leading journalist with a distinct point of view and a commanding voice to join our ranks as the Chief Correspondent. The role will explore how power operates across the worlds of Hollywood, technology, business, media, politics, style and beyond. This is a role for a highly seasoned and experienced writer with both authority and style - someone who doesn't just observe the culture but shapes the conversations around it.

We are interested in an experienced reporter who is respected as an authority in our profession. The ideal candidate sees the connective tissue between industries and institutions, between Silicon Valley and Washington, between Hollywood and Wall Street, between cultural shifts and boardroom decisions. The ideal candidate is adept in crafting investigations, sophisticated profiles, and narrative features that cut through the noise - delivering insight, access, and personality to an audience that craves authority and discernment. You'll shape long-lead, longform explorations into the personalities and power dynamics driving our world, working with Vanity Fair colleagues to translate those stories across mediums. You'll always operate with our readers in mind, always considering how best to reach them, through the written word, imagery, short-form video, audio, film and television.

This role is based in New York or Los Angeles.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead some of Vanity Fair’s most ambitious storytelling, focusing on long-lead projects in nearly every issue of the magazine that will regularly shape the discourse.
• Working closely with the Deputy Editor and Global Editorial Director, help shape the strategy for future issues and editorial tentpoles.
• Consistently bring fresh, innovative ideas and sharp angles to Vanity Fair’s coverage - placing stories in broader social, political, and/or cultural context, and expanding meaning and significance beyond the scope of any single industry.
• Break news and consistently offer scoops through original reporting and insider knowledge, working with a high degree of autonomy, always with the Vanity Fair strategy and vision in mind.
• Represent Vanity Fair in the media, whether in video and social franchises, live events, podcast and media partnerships, as well as in traditional press, consistently considering new ways to reach our audiences.
• Collaborate with the wider editorial team, including the social team, to shape our multi-platform storytelling (print, web, video, podcast, live).
• Maintain a highly visible presence in public forums, always considering how you can strengthen both personal and Vanity Fair brand equity.
• Take a lead in working across global teams, identifying relevant stories for Vanity Fair markets (Italy, Spain, France, UK), and driving collaboration between teams.
• Help drive story ideas and editorial thinking, including for other colleagues, taking an active role in the development and mentoring of writers across the team.

Ideal Candidate

• An expert voice in journalism, commentary, or public discourse with a highly established audience and track record of influence.
• A deep understanding of Vanity Fair and how its legacy is guiding its future.
• Minimum of 15 years' experience reporting features and writing columns or cultural analysis for a major publication or platform.
• Deep and extensive sourcing across industries, with a keen understanding of how influence is brokered in today’s world.
• Dynamic prose with an incredibly sharp eye for power and the curiosity to follow the lines of that power through various worlds.
• Cross market and cultural understanding as to what stories resonate for Vanity Fair audiences outside of the US.
• Comfort working in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, valuing originality and rigor in equal measure.
• Proven ability to work well with others, across departments, both within and outside of Vanity Fair.

The expected base salary range for this position is from $165,000-$270,000. Salary offers are based on a wide range of factors including but not limited to relevant skills, training, experience, and education.

This is a guild position.

Condé Nast is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, familial status and other legally protected characteristics.