• by Melynda Fuller , February 12, 2020

Conde Nast Entertainment looks to expand the company’s entertainment-content production with the creation of a network of brand studios. The first Conde Nast brands to take the lead include The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Wired and GQ.

The studios provide the company with the chance to maximize its IP opportunities by expanding journalism and storytelling into new domains, such as film, TV series and podcasts.

“The brand studios will enable us to work closely with our editorial teams in bigger and better ways. We have the best IP in the world and our mission is to ensure that our iconic storytelling extends beyond the amazing experience we provide in print and digital,” CNE president Oren Katzeff told Publishers Daily.

“With these studios, we're aligning ourselves with industry-leading IP early in the creation process, which will allow us to expand our storytelling with greater scale and volume on platforms across the globe."

Studio heads with deep film and development experience will aid the process. Each studio head will work closely with the editorial team affiliated with that studio’s brand to jump on key stories.

Conde Nast Entertainment announced a slew of projects alongside the studio news.

The New Yorker Studio’s output includes the films City of a Million Soldiers inspired by Luke Mogelson’s 2017 New Yorker article and Spiderhead, based on George Saunders 2010 New Yorker story. City of a Million Soldiers has a theatrical premiere slated for this June, while Spiderhead has been picked up by Netflix.

Vogue Studio has a series of documentaries under development, while Vanity Fair Studio is set to release two films: Gilded Rage, based on Benjamin Wallace’s 2015 article, and The Chairman, based on an article by Eric Konigsberg.

Wired Studio is currently producing two films, Tell Tale Heart, based on a 2019 article by Lauren Smiley, and King of the Jungle, adapted from Joshua Davis’s 2012 article and a scripted series based on Christine Biederman’s 2019 article.

GQ Studio is behind two announced projects: American Alien, based on Daniel Riley’s 2018 piece, and Murder Creek, adapted from Zach Baron’s 2019 article.