Mark Russell, Executive Director, Business Operations – Europe, Condé Nast, picks out the successes of the last 12 months and looks forward to 2026.

Looking back on the past year, what have been some of the standout moments or achievements for your business?

It’s always exciting when a brand has a new editor and at Condé Nast in 2025 we appointed two fantastic new editorial leaders – Kemi Alemoru at Glamour and Talib Choudhry at House & Garden. Each has brought fresh ideas and direction to two (very different) well-established and beloved brands. You could see this new energy in Talib’s standout debut issue in November, and in Kemi’s first Women Of The Year Awards back in October. It’s an immense privilege to work with such talented new editors – and, obviously, a great business opportunity too! 

Just last month, GQ’s Men of The Year awards was record-breaking in terms of revenue and remains a blockbuster event that is as popular with our audiences on social as it is with talent in the room, as it is with advertisers who partner with us on it. Further afield, Vogue World was a triumph in LA and, as ever, sets the standard for our tentpole events that we run across the globe.

In the UK, Vogue had three impressive new projects that really caught the eye – its Wellness Retreat, the Vogue Café that ran during London Fashion Week, and, finally, the Vintage Sale, all incredibly successful, in large part due to the fact they’re editorially driven ideas, which I think clients and audience can sense.

Which commercial partnerships or collaborations from this year have been particularly exciting or impactful?

We never take for granted how lucky we are to attract the partners that we do. In general, we have been really happy with the increasing engagement we have had with media agencies over the year.

However, I think our global partnership with Ebay really stood out as they worked with us across so many of our brands, the most impactful of which was Vogue’s Vintage Sale. It was the perfect alignment – Ebay is Condé Nast’s pre-loved partner, and Vogue has vintage fashion as a key part of its editorial strategy. The event itself, back in March, was also a roaring success and it was great to see so many of our readers in real life.

From the large-scale to small but beautiful…  for its December edition, the World of Interiors produced the ‘mini issue’ in celebration of all things diminutive but perfectly formed. A 134mm x 104mm recreation of the regular issue, it’s utterly aesthetically satisfying and a joy to hold, and the party to celebrate it held with JW Anderson was just perfect. 

Finally, Vogue Business recently held an excellent leaders’ dinner in partnership with the Made Possible campaign, led by the family planning global partnership FP2030, and supported by the Gates Foundation. An important initiative, it brought together the influential women from across fashion, beauty and luxury to discuss how access to contraception has shaped opportunity and success, and what’s at risk as that access declines.

As you plan for the year ahead, what priorities or opportunities are at the top of your agenda?

Across our brands, we’ve had such phenomenal success on social media over the past year, with huge growth in followers and engagement, so we need to continue to explore how we can best monetise that along with continuing to grow our display. The potential remains vast and growing. 

At the same time, we need to see AI as an opportunity as well as the challenge that we often discuss. In a digital world with a lot of artificial ‘noise’, I also see real life interactions with our brands, and editors continuing to become increasingly important to our readers.

In terms of the schedule, I am excited to see how London Fashion Week evolves, and what we can do with our brands, while in the summer the World Cup should hopefully bring some exciting editorial opportunities and partnerships. I’d also like England to win it.

Then, Vogue World being held in Milan next September provides us with an interesting opportunity in London, in terms of the interest and large-scale audience it brings – we’ll explore watch parties and other packages that we can build around it. 

And on a more personal note, what are you most looking forward to during the festive season?

For many of us in publishing, away from the daily newsrooms, it is the only period of collective downtime where the emails, slacks, and WhatsApps can slow to a trickle. Which means there is a chance to catch up on all the culture that I’ve missed but we’ve covered in our brands over the year. As books are often the thing that falls by the wayside, I’ll try to carve out time to get stuck into Jason Burke’s The Revolutionists and for comfort and laughs Bob Mortimer’s latest, The Long Shoe.