\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this building burned down tonight, I think the whole news industry would be done,\u201d Emily Sundberg<\/strong> told me while standing in front of a table with charcuterie and crudit\u00e9 in the time machine that was the old Cond\u00e9 Nast cafeteria on Wednesday night. \u201cEveryone\u2019s here,\u201d she said of the crowd that showed up to celebrate the release of Michael Grynbaum<\/strong>\u2019s Empire of the Elite: Inside Cond\u00e9 Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI really wanted to put this gathering together for people who love magazines and their legacy and their influence and what they stand for in the culture,\u201d Grynbaum, a veteran New York Times<\/em> media reporter, told the crowd. \u201cAnd I think all of you from different generations have that relationship with them. I\u2019m really thrilled to see everyone, and I feel like it\u2019s coming to Pompeii or something.\u201d<\/p>\n And while it was an intimate affair, it certainly felt like most everyone in media, old guard and new, was there to celebrate. Among those mingling over glasses of wine and light bites in the Frank Gehry<\/strong>\u2013designed cafeteria, I spotted New York Times<\/em> executive editor Joe Kahn,<\/strong> Cosmopolitan<\/em> and Seventeen<\/em> editor in chief Willa Bennett,<\/strong> New York Magazine<\/em> editor in chief David Haskell,<\/strong> and Vox Media president Pam Wasserstein.<\/strong> At one point, PR maven Risa Heller<\/strong> was chatting with Andrew Ross Sorkin<\/strong> near the entrance, as fellow Time<\/em>s colleagues, Michael Barbaro<\/strong> and Shawn McCreesh,<\/strong> mingled about the room. Derek Blasberg,<\/strong> Molly Jong-Fast, Oliver Darcy,<\/strong> and Jeffrey Toobin<\/strong> were also on hand, along with Breaker\u2019s Lachlan Cartwright,<\/strong> who I caught in conversation with Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just like osmosis between any two people in the room,\u201d said Sundberg, representing the new media cohort via her Substack newsletter Feed Me.<\/em> \u201cThere\u2019s people who have worked in this building for years, and there are people who have never been into this building and probably have only read about it, and then there are people who probably don\u2019t even know what the significance of this building is, but it\u2019s really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n The book, which is a chronicle of Cond\u00e9 Nast and the cast of characters who shaped the company and its editorial brands throughout the \u201980s, \u201990s, and early 2000s, has many feeling nostalgic for the heights of legacy media power. \u201cI do think that we\u2019re in this moment right now where print media in a simpler time in the culture is appealing,\u201d Grynbaum told me. \u201cPeople have been telling me their memories about reading GQ,<\/em> reading Vanity Fair<\/em> as kids, how they grew up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n When starting this project, the Times<\/em> reporter was surprised to see that no one had thoroughly captured the history of Cond\u00e9 Nast, and the \u201cinfluence its magazines had on the last, really, 50 years of American life.\u201d Grynbaum added that he \u201cwanted to do it justice.\u201d<\/p>\n One particular member of the old Cond\u00e9 Nast guard, Graydon Carter,<\/strong> drew much of the room\u2019s attention when he walked in with Maureen Dowd.<\/strong> When I caught Carter for a brief moment, about 30 minutes after he arrived, he still hadn\u2019t fully made his way in, with guests constantly approaching him near the entrance to say hello. Carter said the book, which covers his tenure as editor in chief of Vanity Fair,<\/em> is \u201cwonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the location was a clever callback to a completely different era in media. Grynbaum tells me that having the party in the former cafeteria was a dream he had before even finishing writing the book. \u201cI knew I wanted to do a book party at a location that symbolized Cond\u00e9 Nast because parties were so much a part of the mythology of the company,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThis evening is a brief moment of returning to a more glamorous age in the media industry.\u201d<\/p>\n When inquiring about the space, Grynbaum was shocked to find out that the main tenant using the cafeteria now is TikTok, which is the \u201ccosmic irony of ironies,\u201d he tells me. \u201cYou can\u2019t make it up.\u201d<\/p>\n Carter quipped that he was feeling a \u201clittle bit of PTSD\u201d being back in his old stomping grounds, 4 Times Square. \u201cI think I\u2019m not the only one who feels that way,\u201d he added, gesturing to the room full of former and current Cond\u00e9 staffers. Being in the cafeteria reminded Carter of having lunch back in the day with Si Newhouse, which he describes as \u201cquite stressful\u201d at times. \u201cBut I miss him so much,\u201d Carter reminisced. \u201cHe was the God here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n