Defining the Times: Radhika Jones on 7 Game-Changing Years at Vanity Fair

In April I announced that I would be stepping down from my role at Vanity Fair, and by the time this issue is in your hands, I’ll have handed over the reins. It gives me immense pleasure to present Pedro Pascal as the final cover subject under my tenure. Pedro checks multiple boxes in my personal pantheon: He had a guest spot on a classic episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; he nailed his bit with Colman Domingo on our 2024 Hollywood cover; and when he and I sat next to each other at the Met Gala in 2023, he companionably offered me a swig from a small flask with the I NY logo on it, which he admitted to buying in Times Square just for the occasion. He was wearing a pair of formal shorts that set the red carpet on fire. He’s a Gen X legend, gorgeously one of a kind.

I started my first job in journalism in the summer of 1995, at The Moscow Times in Russia. It’s been a wild and woolly three decades. Just during my time at Vanity Fair, we’ve covered a global pandemic, roiling racial and social justice movements, Hollywood strikes and streaming wars, the insurrection at the Capitol, the invasion of Ukraine, the death of a queen, and two nail-biting presidential elections. It has been deeply gratifying work. We’ve also had a lot to celebrate. As editor my goal was to tap firmly into VF’s DNA as a magazine about the zeitgeist, reveling in contemporary culture in all its diversity and offering a place of discovery—of new talent, new ideas, new ways of thinking about the world. The times we live in have certainly helped shape our reporting. But our choices—of game-changing cover stars, iconic imagery, immersive feature stories, and provocative investigations—have also helped define the times.

Editors are granted their individual pet peeves; one of mine, for the record, is use of the verb penned. (No one is “penning” anything these days, I promise you.) But truthfully, magazines and all their attendant parts—from videos and docuseries to podcasts and social posts—are the ultimate collective endeavor. I have been privileged to work with a group of extraordinary writers, editors, designers, photographers, and producers at VF. The masthead printed in each issue is, in real life, a vital community—collegial, creative, ambitious, and hilarious. I salute every one of them, smart and savvy thinkers whose work consistently raised the bar and whose wit in our Slack channels and Signal chats routinely brought me joy.

Looking over old emails, I came across a note from a reader commenting on a jam-packed summer issue, not unlike the one you’re reading now: “It is an escape but isn’t oblivious. It finds thrilling narratives hidden underneath the headlines. It questions orthodoxies, no matter from whom. It understands that human relationships are often the driving force behind the stories of the day.”

It has been my honor as editor to put these stories into your hands. I hope your encounters with Vanity Fair have been equally rewarding. And as I happily rejoin the ranks of our readers, I wish VF’s incoming global editorial director, Mark Guiducci, good fortune, good fun, and never a dull moment.