The nepo baby who might just save Vogue
The appointment of self-proclaimed ‘nepo baby’ Chloe Malle as the new boss of American Vogue might have elicited calls of inherited privilege, but Malle is determined to use her connections to keep the magazine from becoming a vestige of the past.
Patrice Pandeleos, managing director of Seven Communications, explores how this built-in advantage can be turned into forward momentum for a struggling brand.
Chloe Malle is the daughter of famous actress Candice Bergen
Anna Wintour’s dark glasses and perfectly-angled bob once made Vogue feel like a fortress, insulated from the chaos beyond its editorial walls. That illusion has dissolved under decades of creeping irrelevance and the slow grind of monthly publishing cycles. The most celebrated print magazines face a digital landscape that moves faster than any production calendar, where even the most renowned cover titles risk vanishing from public attention as an imminent threat.
Enter Chloe Malle, Head of Editorial Content for American Vogue, grabbing the reins of arguably print media’s most iconic masthead. She embraces her self-proclaimed status as a ‘nepo baby’ and turns inherited privilege into cultural currency, using her networks to keep the magazine relevant to an audience that scrolls faster than it reads. To every brand watching, the lesson is unavoidable: what if every built-in advantage became a tool to propel forward instead of a cushion to fall back on?
Legacy won’t save you
Prestige and reputation offer no immunity in a culture where attention is measured in seconds. Brands that cling to outdated patterns risk being admired for past achievements, while losing their influence in discussions that shape the present. Some argue that leaning on inherited advantages undermines deservedness. In practice, legacy media operates in a far messier reality – survival demands converting credibility into content that matters now.
