The Dynamic Duo at Conde Nast

By Laurence Zuckerman

On paper, they seem almost interchangeable. Young, attractive products of privileged British households, both are working mothers of small children and second wives to older, distinguished husbands. More important, Editors Tina Brown of Vanity Fair and Anna Wintour of House & Garden are journalistic prodigies boldly imposing their visions on two venerable American magazines in the same publishing empire. Recruited by Newspaper Scion S.I. Newhouse, proprietor of the eleven Conde Nast magazines, Brown and Wintour are rising stars who may one day equal such Conde Nast legends as Diana Vreeland, formerly of Vogue, and Ruth Whitney of Glamour.

Up close, however, the two could not be more different. Willowy, auburn- haired Wintour, 38, is cool and withdrawn; Brown, 34, a shorter, shapely blond, is brassy and outgoing. Their editing styles are as distinct as their looks. Brown is verbal, literary, with a knack for matching writer to subject, while Wintour is a visual creature, renowned for her eye for style.

After Wintour arrived at House & Garden last fall, rumors of a Dynasty-style cat fight with Brown began to circulate. Although Wintour did snatch Fashion Writer Andre Leon Talley away from Vanity Fair, the two women say they are friends, not rivals. Still, the talk grew louder earlier this year, when Wintour's controversial makeover of House & Garden (which she renamed HG) hit the newsstands. Aghast at a number of similarities to Vanity Fair -- particularly the emphasis on celebrities -- one wag dubbed HG "Vanity Fair with chairs."

That Vanity Fair, one of the most celebrated avant-garde magazines of the 1920s, would once again be a trendsetter was exactly what Newhouse and Conde Nast Editorial Director Alexander Liberman hoped when they revived the long- defunct magazine in 1983. But after one of the most heralded debuts in recent publishing history, the new magazine collapsed under the weight of its own pretension. Eleven months and two editors later, Newhouse and Liberman hired Brown, an Oxford graduate whose spunky editing had turned around the British satirical monthly Tatler.

Brown learned to adapt her light, irreverent British sensibility to the New World. "Americans want real information, substance, something solid," she observes. The result was what she calls an "intellectual cabaret" -- a saucy, literate celebrity magazine featuring profiles of Hollywood stars, aristocrats and parvenus, ballasted with some weightier and newsier pieces. Her philosophy of journalism as voyeurism seems to have worked. Since her arrival, circulation has ballooned from 259,753 to 595,844, and advertising pages have more than tripled.

Meanwhile, House & Garden, which had won two National Magazine Awards in 1984, was losing momentum. After replacing the publisher and art director, Newhouse and Liberman sent for Wintour. A mediocre student who is said to have lost all interest in academics after a teacher upbraided her for wearing a miniskirt, Wintour never went to college and instead plunged into the world of fashion. She arrived in the U.S. in 1976 and put in stints at Viva and New York, before being named creative director of American Vogue in 1983 and editor of the British edition in 1986. In London her brusque approach to redesigning the already successful British Vogue earned her the sobriquets "nuclear Wintour" and "Wintour of our discontent." The shy editor clearly relishes power. "I'm the Conde Nast hit man," she told a friend. "I love coming in and changing magazines."

Whether she will succeed with HG is not yet clear. Critics who are concerned that she is moving the magazine away from design and into fashion now refer to it as House & Garment. Wintour has little affection for the traditional, glossy spreads of uninhabited interiors so dear to many subscribers. Her first week on the job, she summarily rejected some $2 million worth of inventoried photos and articles. "She destroyed House & Garden in 2 1/2 days," bristles a former editor who was fired shortly after Wintour arrived. Wintour explains that rather than showing "empty rooms," she prefers to bring in the feeling of people. "Dramatic environments reflect strong personalities," she says, sitting behind the stark black desk in her chic but minimalist Madison Avenue office.

Whatever outsiders may say, both Brown and Wintour are securely established within the Conde Nast firmament. Each reportedly receives more than $200,000 a year, plus a $25,000 clothing allowance and plenty of pampering. During her stint in London, Wintour's husband David Shaffer, a prominent child psychiatrist, remained in New York City; the company paid for regular Concorde flights so they could visit each other. And some say Newhouse launched Traveler, Conde Nast's newest magazine, so that Brown's husband Editor Harold Evans would have something to do in New York.

Most important to insiders, however, is the question of what Brown and Wintour ultimately want. Wintour is said to prize the top spot at American ! Vogue or perhaps even Liberman's post as editorial director. Brown's long-term interests, on the other hand, seem to lie outside fashion journalism. "She has a fascination for Hollywood that has not begun to be exhausted," says Vanity Fair Contributor Dominick Dunne. For now, however, both women claim that it is challenge enough to run their shops efficiently and try to make it home to their children by dinnertime.

With reporting by Kathleen Brady/New York