Who Will Succeed Anna Wintour at 'Vogue'? Journalist Amy Odell, Who Wrote a Bestseller About the Editrix, Weighs In (Exclusive)

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On Thursday, June 26, Anna Wintour announced she was stepping back as American Vogue's editor-in-chief after 37 years in the role
American Vogue will seek to replace the role with a head of editorial content
Author and Wintour biographer Amy Odell spoke to PEOPLE about the longtime editor's possible successor and reasons behind the moveEver since Anna Wintour announced she was stepping back from her long-held post as editor-in-chief of American Vogue, there's been one question on everyone's lips: Who will replace her?
On Thursday, June 26, Wintour, 75, announced in a Vogue staff meeting that she would relinquish the role after 37 years. The fashion legend, who became editor-in-chief in 1988, will stay on as Condé Nast's global chief content officer and global editorial director at Vogue but is making way for new leadership. Vogue will seek a new head of editorial content, who will report to Wintour.
Author and journalist Amy Odell, who published a bestselling biography of Wintour titled Anna in 2022, spoke to PEOPLE about Wintour's exit and the future of Vogue.
As for Wintour's possible reasons for leaving, Odell shares, "Anna is 75 years old, [she's been] doing this for 37 years. As superhuman as she is, nobody can do any job forever."
Odell admits that while Wintour's "bombshell" news "feels scary," the longtime editor seems to be making a calculated move.
"What I do think is interesting about the succession is we know that Anna is a very controlled person and she's setting it up so that she's picking her successor," she explains. "She's still going to be at Condé Nast overseeing what they're doing and influencing the magazine that they're creating. So it seems like a very controlled way for her to leave her editor-in-chief job."
As for who Wintour might pick for new head of editorial content, Odell says the successor is likely to be someone from the Vogue or Condé Nast family.
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"If you look at the history of Vogue successions, that's pretty much what's happened when the editor-in-chief has changed over," she says. "So when Anna became editor-in-chief in 1988, she had been both creative director of American Vogue and also editor-in-chief of British Vogue, and her predecessor was Grace Marabella, who was at Vogue for a long time before she became an editor-in-chief, succeeding Diana Vreeland. So I would expect it to be someone internal."
Odell suggests that Vogue.com's editor Chloe Malle or British Vogue's head of editorial content, Chioma Nnadi could be in the running.
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During her announcement on Thursday, Wintour told Vogue staff: "Anybody in a creative field knows how essential it is never to stop growing in one's work. When I became the editor of Vogue, I was eager to prove to all who might listen that there was a new, exciting way to imagine an American fashion magazine."
She continued: 'Now, I find that my greatest pleasure is helping the next generation of impassioned editors storm the field with their own ideas, supported by a new, exciting view of what a major media company can be. And that is exactly the kind of person we need to now look for to be HOEC for US Vogue.'
Wintour went on to explain that many of her responsibilities at Vogue would remain the same, 'including paying very close attention to the fashion industry and to the creative cultural force that is our extraordinary Met Ball, and charting the course of future Vogue Worlds, and any other original fearless ideas we may come up with…and it goes without saying that I plan to remain Vogue's tennis and theater editor in perpetuity.
'But how thrilling it will be,' she concluded, 'to work alongside someone new who will challenge us, inspire us, and make us all think about Vogue in a myriad of original ways."
The longtime editor began her career at Vogue in 1988, taking the reins from former editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella. Wintour immediately started reshaping the magazine and one of her first major moves made history for the brand.
Her first cover (the November 1988 issue), featured model Michaela Bercu in a $50 pair of jeans (the first time denim was on the cover of Vogue) with a $10,000 Christian Lacroix sweater in a fun and relaxed shot photographed by Peter Lindbergh.
Read the original article on People