Tina Brown

Christina Hambley Brown, Lady Evans (born 21 November 1953), is an English journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host, and author of ''The Diana Chronicles'' (2007) a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, '' The Vanity Fair Diaries'' (2017) and ''The Palace Papers'' (2022). Born a British citizen, she now holds joint citizenship after she took United States citizenship in 2005, following her emigration in 1984 to edit ''Vanity Fair''.

Having been editor-in-chief of '' Tatler'' magazine at the age of 25 in London, she edited ''Vanity Fair'' from 1984 to 1992 and ''The New Yorker'' from 1992 to 1998. She was founding editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Beast'', serving from 2008 to 2013.

As an editor, she has received four George Polk Awards, five Overseas Press Club awards, and ten National Magazine Awards. In 2000, she was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to overseas journalism, and in 2007 was inducted into the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.

She edited ''Newsweek'' from 2011 to 2012. In 2010 she founded live journalism platform Women in the World, which she ran until 2020.

Early life and education

Tina Brown was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, and grew up in the village of Little Marlow, in Buckinghamshire. Her father, George Hambley Brown, was active in the British film industry as a producer, including the Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford. Her elder brother, Christopher Hambley Brown, became a film producer. Her mother, Bettina Kohr, who married George Brown in 1948, was an executive assistant to Laurence Olivier on his first two Shakespeare films. Bettina was of part Iraqi descent; Tina recounted, "She was dark and I never knew why."

In Brown's own words she was considered "an extremely subversive influence" as a child, resulting in her expulsion from three boarding schools. Offences included organising a demonstration to protest against the school's policy of allowing a change of underwear only three times a week, referring to her headmistress's bosoms as "unidentified flying objects" in a journal entry, and writing a play about her school being blown up and a public lavatory being erected in its place.

Brown entered the University of Oxford at the age of 17. She studied at St Anne's College, and graduated with a BA in English Literature. As an undergraduate, she wrote for ''Isis'', the university's literary magazine, to which she contributed interviews with the journalist Auberon Waugh and the actor Dudley Moore. Brown wrote for the ''New Statesman'' while she was still an undergraduate at Oxford. Her friendship with Waugh served as a boost to her writing career, as he used his influence to ensure that her ability was recognised. Later, she went on to date the writer Martin Amis.

While still at Oxford, she won ''The Sunday Times'' National Student Drama Award for her one-act play ''Under the Bamboo Tree'' which was performed at the Bush Theatre and The Edinburgh Festival. A subsequent play, ''Happy Yellow'', in 1977 was mounted at the London fringe Bush Theatre and was later performed at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Personal life

In 1973, the literary agent Pat Kavanagh introduced Brown's writings to Harold Evans, editor of ''The Sunday Times'', and in 1974 she was given freelance assignments in the UK by Ian Jack, the paper's features editor, and in the US by its colour magazine, edited by Godfrey Smith. When a relationship developed between Brown and Evans, she resigned to write for the rival ''The Sunday Telegraph''. Evans divorced in 1978 and, on 20 August 1981, he and Brown married at Grey Gardens, the East Hampton, New York, home of ''The Washington Post'' executive editor Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn. They lived together in New York City until Evans' death on 23 September 2020. They had two children: a son, George, born in 1986, and a daughter, Isabel, born in 1990. Evans was knighted in 2004.

Career

Punch

After graduating, while doing freelance reporting, Brown was invited to write a weekly column by the literary humour magazine, ''Punch''. These articles and her freelance contributions to ''The Sunday Times'' and ''The Sunday Telegraph'' earned her the Catherine Pakenham Award for the best journalist under 25. Some of the writings from this era formed part of her first collection ''Loose Talk'', published by Michael Joseph.

Tatler

In 1979, Brown was invited to edit the society magazine '' Tatler'' by its new owner, the Australian real estate millionaire Gary Bogard and turned it into a modern glossy magazine with covers by celebrated photographers like Norman Parkinson, Helmut Newton, and David Bailey, and fashion by Michael Roberts. ''Tatler'' featured writers from Brown's circle including Julian Barnes, Dennis Potter, Auberon Waugh, Brian Sewell, Martin Amis, Georgina Howell (whom Brown appointed deputy editor), and Nicholas Coleridge. Brown herself wrote content for every issue, contributing irreverent surveys of the upper classes. She travelled through Scotland to portray the owners' stately homes. She also wrote short satirical profiles of eligible London bachelors under the pen-name Rosie Boot.

''Tatler'' covered the emergence of Lady Diana Spencer, soon to become Princess of Wales. Brown joined NBC's Tom Brokaw in running commentary for '' The Today Show'' on the royal wedding on 29 July 1981. ''Tatler'' increased its sales from 10,000 to 40,000. In 1982, when S. I. ("Si") Newhouse Jr., owner of Condé Nast Publications, bought ''Tatler'', Brown resigned to become a full-time writer again. The break didn't last long and Brown was lured back to Conde Nast. This year she also hosted several editions of the long running television series Film82 for BBC1 as a guest presenter.

''Vanity Fair''

In 1983, Brown was brought to New York by Newhouse to advise on ''Vanity Fair'', a title that he had resurrected earlier that year. It then had a circulation of 200,000. She stayed on as a contributing editor for a brief time, and then was named editor-in-chief on 1 January 1984. She recalls that upon taking over the magazine she found it to be "pretentious, humourless. It wasn't too clever, it was just dull."

The first contract writer she hired was not a writer but a movie producer whom she met at a dinner party hosted by the writer Marie Brenner. The producer told her he was going to California for the trial of the strangler of his daughter. As solace, Brown suggested for him to keep a diary and his report (headlined ''Justice'') proved the launch of the long magazine career of Dominick Dunne.

Early pieces such as Dunne's cover story on accused murderer Klaus Von Bulow and Los Angeles arrivistes like Candy Spelling, and the use of provocative covers brightened the prospects of the magazine. In addition, Brown signed up among others Marie Brenner, Gail Sheehy—who wrote a series of widely read political profiles including a cover story on Mikhail Gorbachev-- Jesse Kornbluth, T.D. Allman, Stephen Schiff, Lynn Herschberg, Peter J. Boyer, John Richardson, James Atlas, Alex Shoumatoff and Ben Brantley. The magazine became a mix of celebrity and serious foreign and domestic reporting. Brown persuaded the novelist William Styron to write about his depression under the title '' Darkness Visible'', which subsequently became a best-selling nonfiction book. At the same time, Brown formed fruitful relationships with photographers Annie Leibovitz, Harry Benson, Herb Ritts, and Helmut Newton. Annie Leibovitz's portrayal of Jerry Hall, Diane Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg and others came to define ''Vanity Fair''. Its best known cover of this period was in August 1991 featuring a naked and pregnant Demi Moore.

Three stories appeared in ''Vanity Fair'' which helped the magazine gain attention and circulation: Harry Benson's cover shoot of Ronald and Nancy Reagan dancing in the White House; Helmut Newton's portrait of accused murderer Claus von Bülow in his leathers with his mistress Andrea Reynolds with reporting by Dominick Dunne, and Brown's own cover story on Diana, Princess of Wales in October 1985 titled ''The Mouse that Roared.'' Those three stories from June to October 1985 saved the magazine after a year when rumors were rife that it was to be folded into ''The New Yorker.''

Thereafter sales of ''Vanity Fair'' rose from 200,000 to 1.2 million. In 1988, she was named Magazine Editor of the Year by ''Advertising Age'' magazine. Advertising topped 1,440 pages in 1991 and with circulation revenues, especially from profitable single copy sales at $20 million, selling some 55 percent of copies on the newsstand, well above the industry average sell through of 42 percent. Despite this success, occasional references later appeared to ''Vanity Fair'' losing money. Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer who suggested as much in his book ''Power: Why Some People Have It – And Others Don't'' was quickly rebutted by Bernard Leser, president of Conde Nast USA during Brown's tenure. In a letter to the editor of the ''Evening Standard'', Leser stated Pfeffer's claim was "absolutely false" and affirmed that they had indeed earned "a very healthy profit." Leo Scullin, an independent magazine consultant, called it a "successful launch of a franchise." Under Brown's editorship ''Vanity Fair'' won four National Magazine Awards, including a 1989 award for General Excellence.

One of her editorial decisions was in October 1990, two months after the first Gulf War had started, when she removed a picture of Marla Maples (a blonde) from the cover and replaced it with a photograph of Cher. The reason for her last minute decision, she quipped to ''The Washington Post'': "In light of the gulf crisis, we thought a brunette was more appropriate."''Washington Post'', Thursday, 25 October 1990 – Page D3, by Chuck Conconi

''The New Yorker''

In 1992, Brown accepted the company's invitation to become editor of ''The New Yorker'', the fourth in its 73-year history and the first woman to hold the position, having been preceded by Harold Ross, William Shawn, and Robert Gottlieb. She has related in speeches that before taking over, she immersed herself in vintage ''New Yorker''s, reading the issues produced by founding editor Harold Ross: "There was an irreverence, a lightness of touch as well as a literary voice that had been obscured in later years when the magazine became more celebrated and stuffy. ... Rekindling that DNA became my passion."

"The New Yorker is a text-driven magazine and always will be, and certainly will be under my tenure," she said in an early interview. Text, she added, was her "first love." Still, anxieties that Brown might change the identity of ''The New Yorker'' as a cultural institution prompted a number of resignations. George Trow, who had been with the magazine for almost three decades, accused Brown of "kissing the ass of celebrity" in his resignation letter. (To which Brown reportedly replied, "I am distraught at your defection but since you never actually write anything I should say I am notionally distraught.") The departing Jamaica Kincaid described Brown as "a bully" and "Stalin in high heels."

However, Brown had the support of some ''New Yorker'' stalwarts, including John Updike, Roger Angell, Brendan Gill, Lillian Ross, Calvin Tomkins, Janet Malcolm, Harold Brodkey and Philip Hamburger, as well as newer staffers like Adam Gopnik and Nancy Franklin. During her editorship, she let 79 staffers go and engaged 50 new writers and editors, most of whom remain to this day, including David Remnick (whom she nominated as her successor), Malcolm Gladwell, Anthony Lane, Jane Mayer, Jeffrey Toobin, Hendrik Hertzberg, Hilton Als, Ken Auletta, Simon Schama, Lawrence Wright, John Lahr, managing editor Pamela McCarthy and executive editor Dorothy Wickenden. Brown introduced the concept of special double issues such as the annual fiction issue and the Holiday Season cartoon issue. She also collaborated with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates to devote a whole issue to the theme Black in America.

Brown broke the magazine's longstanding reluctance to treat photography seriously in 1992, when she invited Richard Avedon to be its first staff photographer. She also approved controversial covers from a new crop of artists, including Edward Sorel's October 1992 cover of a punk rock passenger sprawled in the backseat of an elegant horse-drawn carriage, which may have been Brown's self-mocking riposte to fears that she would downgrade the magazine. A year later a national controversy was provoked by her publication of Art Spiegelman's Valentine's Day cover of a Jewish man and a black woman in an embracing kiss, a comment on the mounting racial tensions between blacks and ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York.

During Brown's tenure, the magazine received four George Polk Awards, five Overseas Press Club Awards, and ten National Magazine Awards, including a 1995 award for General Excellence, the first in the magazine's history. Newsstand sales rose 145 percent. ''The New Yorker''s circulation increased to 807,935 for the second half of 1997, up from 658,916 during the corresponding period in 1992. Critics maintained it was hemorrhaging money, but Newhouse remained supportive, viewing the magazine under Brown as a start-up (which routinely lose money): "It was practically a new magazine. She added topicality, photography, color. She did what we would have done if we invented the ''New Yorker'' from scratch. To do all that was costly. We knew it would be." Under Brown, its economic fortunes improved every year: in 1995 losses were about $17 million, in 1996 $14 million, and in 1997 $11 million.

In 1998, Brown resigned from ''The New Yorker'' following an invitation from Harvey and Bob Weinstein of Miramax Films (then owned by The Walt Disney Company) to be the chairman of a new multi-media company they intended to start with a new magazine, book company, and television show. The Hearst company came in as partners with Miramax.

The departing verdicts after Brown's ''New Yorker'' tenure included:

''Talk'' magazine

Tina Brown next created '' Talk'' magazine, a monthly glossy, and appointed Jonathan Burnham and Susan Mercandetti to manage Talk Books, with a staff that included editors Sam Sifton, Danielle Mattoon and Jonathan Mahler. Its two political columnists were Jake Tapper and Tucker Carlson. She simultaneously appointed Jonathan Burnham and Susan Mercandetti to manage Talk Miramax Books. Out of 42 books published during Brown's time, 11 appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List, including ''Leadership'' by Rudy Giuliani, ''Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, Leap of Faith'' by Queen Noor of Jordan, and ''Madam Secretary (book), Madam Secretary'' by Madeleine Albright.

'' Talk'' magazine was due to be launched during a party at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City but was banned by Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who did not feel it was an appropriate use of the site. The star-studded event mixing political leaders, writers, and Hollywood, was then moved to Liberty Island, where on 2 August 1999 more than 800 guests – including Madonna (entertainer), Madonna, Salman Rushdie, Demi Moore, and George Plimpton - arrived by barge for a picnic dinner at the feet of the Statue of Liberty under thousands of Japanese lanterns and a Grucci fireworks display. An interview with Hillary Clinton in its very first issue caused an immediate political sensation when she claimed that the abuse her husband suffered as a child led to his adult philandering. ''The Washington Post'' reported that at times, "''Talk'' seemed more interested in promoting such Miramax stars as Gwyneth Paltrow than in politics."

Despite having achieved a circulation of 670,000 ''Talk'' magazine's publication was abruptly halted in January 2002 in the wake of the advertising recession following the September 11 attacks, 9/11 attacks. It was Brown's first very public failure but she said she had no regrets about embarking on the project. She told Charlotte Edwardes of ''The Telegraph'' in 2002: "My reputation rests on four magazines – three great successes, one that was a great experiment. I don't feel in any way let down. No big career doesn't have one flame out in it and there's nobody more boring than the undefeated." Talk Media was founded in July 1998 by Miramax Films, Tina Brown and Ron Galotti to publish books and Talk magazine and produce television programs. Talk Media formed a joint venture with Hearst Publishing, Hearst Magazines for the magazine only in February 1999. Brown worked with the book division's editor-in chief Jonathan Burnham. She recalled in October 2017 at the time of allegations of sexual assault being made against Harvey Weinstein: "Strange contracts pre-dating us would suddenly surface, book deals with no deadline attached authored by attractive or nearly famous women."

''Politico'' estimated that Brown had "bombed through some $50 million in 2 years" on the failed venture. A $1 million contract settlement in 2002 ended Brown's involvement in Talk Media.

Talk Miramax Books flourished as a boutique publishing house until it was detached from Miramax in 2005 and made part of Hyperion at Disney.

''Topic A''

Brown hosted a series of specials for CNBC. The network followed up by signing her to host a weekly talk show of politics and culture titled ''Topic [A] With Tina Brown'', which debuted on 4 May 2003. The program welcomed guests ranging from political figures, such as the Prime Minister of the UK, Tony Blair, and John McCain, Senator John McCain, to celebrities, such as George Clooney and Annette Bening. ''Topic A'' struggled to find an audience on Sunday nights, airing after a day of infomercials. It averaged 75,000 viewers in 2005, about the same as ''The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch'' (79,000) and John McEnroe's ''McEnroe'' (75,000.) On being offered a lucrative deal with tight deadlines to write a book about Diana, Princess of Wales, Princess Diana, Brown resigned, airing her last ''Topic A'' interviews on 29 May 2005.

British Royal Family

Brown's biography of Diana, Princess of Wales was published just before the 10th anniversary of her death in June 2007. ''The Diana Chronicles'' made ''The New York Times'' bestseller list for hardback nonfiction, with two weeks in the number one position.

A sequel, ''The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor–The Truth and the Turmoil'', on the period between the deaths of the Princess of Wales and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was published in 2022. "Some of the gossip", wrote Philip Hensher in a review for ''The Spectator'', as in "all books of this sort, is grossly implausible."

''The Daily Beast''

On 6 October 2008, Brown teamed up with Barry Diller to launch ''The Daily Beast'', an online news magazine. On 12 November 2010, ''The Daily Beast'' and ''Newsweek'' announced that they would merge their operations in a joint venture to be owned equally by Sidney Harman and IAC/InterActiveCorp. The new entity was named The Newsweek Daily Beast Company with Tina Brown as Editor-in-Chief and Stephen Colvin as CEO. In December 2012, the final printed issue of ''Newsweek'' was published. A cover headline stated the magazine would change to the digital format, and Tina Brown wrote an editorial about it. The digital format was short-lived: the print edition returned after Brown's departure.

On 11 September 2013, Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown announced her departure. Initial reports of her contract not being renewed were refuted in a statement issued by Barry Diller, IAC/InterActiveCorp's Executive Director:

Brown's resignation caused much speculation in the media in regard to the future of the website. Her hand-picked successor as executive editor, John Avlon, addressed the question succinctly with his quip: "''The Daily Beast'' roars on."

Works

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**collection of articles for Tatler
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**collection of articles for Tatler
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References

Sources

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External links

Official Random House biography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Tina
1953 births
Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford
Living people
English journalists
English magazine editors
English emigrants to the United States
People from Maidenhead
People from East Hampton (town), New York
The New Yorker editors
The New York Sun people
Talk (magazine) people
Vanity Fair (magazine) editors
The Washington Post people
English women journalists
English people of Iraqi descent
Women magazine editors
Wives of knights