Interview says it’s nothing but chatter. Rumors have been whistling around the artsy/literary scene that Andy Warhol’s magazine has suffered a mass exodus of staff in the last few days, and that the outlet is on its way out (for the second time) after 56 years.
But we’re told that the storied publication is just fine, thank you very much. While the scuttlebutt said that “most” of its editorial staff have walked, its editor-in-chief, Mel Ottenberg, tells Page Six that, au contraire, “Interview just signed a lease on a new and bigger office space, next issue is out in a few weeks, things are good.”
Ottenberg — a big-time fashion stylist who has worked with Rihanna and Justin Bieber, among many others — became the magazine’s creative director in 2018, then its editor in 2021.
He added, “It’s been a long time since anyone left Interview and a few people indeed left recently, and that’s OK. We’ve hired two new people in the last week.”
Warhol founded Interview in 1969 with journalist and Village Voice co-founder John Wilcock, and it would be edited by Factory types including Gerard Malanga, Glenn O’Brien and Bob Colacello.
It became famous for having celebrities interview other celebrities. Robert Pattinson and Zendaya recently interviewed each other, Beyoncé interviewed sister Solange Knowles in 2017, and Jon Voight interviewed Angelina Jolie in 1997, for example.
Peter and Sandra Brant’s Brant Publications bought the title in 1989, and Ingrid Sischy headed it for nearly 20 years, until 2008.
In 2018 it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and appeared to be shuttering.
But three months later, Peter bought the magazine out of bankruptcy, and it relaunched as a bimonthly magazine, rather than a monthly.
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