Reinventing the Iconic Conde Nast Traveler Magazine

The first complete issue of Conde Nast Traveler under the title's new Editor-in-Chief arrives on newsstands and in mail boxes this week. New Editor-in-Chief Pilar Guzmán took over in August from Klara Glowczewska, who had run the magazine since 2005. Over the past few years the magazine had grown a bit, well, safe. Despite solid consumer reporting in the front of the book by people like Barbara Peterson and Wendy Perrin and essays by prominent figures, the features were often of the "Where are really wealthy and good-looking people going to this month?", and the fashion features were easily mockable. Still, it had a certain gravitas that was, if not the best barometer of what was happening now in travel, a good way of measuring what was important to an establishment made up of airlines, hotel brands, cruise lines, and high-end travel agents. Guzmán writes in her editor's letter that the new Traveler will "replicate the experience of getting the download from our most interesting, most well-traveled and in-the-know friends." Let's see how interesting these friends are. Cover Story The first issue under new management begins with a pop. A New Coke, 1980s kind of pop, that is. On the cover is a portrait of Christy Turlington Burns with a desert landscape reflected in her Ray-Ban sunglasses. To the right of her are destinations prin