Travel + Leisure Editor-in-Chief Nancy Novogrod Retires

Time Inc. announced today that Travel + Leisure Editor-in-Chief Nancy Novogrod was retiring later this summer.

Novogrod has run the magazine for 21 years, the vast majority of that time as part of American Express Publishing and since last fall as part of Time Inc. A Time Inc. spokesperson said, “We are beginning to conduct a search for Nancy’s successor and are delighted that she has agreed to stay on to help us choose the best candidate to succeed her.”

Executive Vice President Evelyn Webster and Chief Content Officer Norman Pearlstine released the following email to Time Inc. employees. 

Dear Colleagues,

After an award-winning 21 years at the helm of Travel + Leisure, Nancy Novogrod has let us know that she plans to retire from Time Inc. in the next few months to pursue a new chapter. With enormous talent, unbridled passion and relentless energy, Nancy has done a brilliant job elevating the leading travel magazine into the most influential multiplatform travel brand. Under her extraordinary leadership, T+L has become the undisputed trendsetter in the travel industry. During her tenure, Nancy has introduced the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards, the Design Awards, and Global Vision Awards and brought in notable writers and photographers, such as Gary Shteyngart, Andrew Solomon, Anya von Bremzen, Guy Trebay, Frédéric Lagrange, Simon Watson, and Anne Menke, who have contributed to the first-rate travel journalism for which the brand is known. Nancy and her team have led T+L to its highest audience ever which now stands at more than 6.5 million, and continue to achieve record-breaking website and social media traffic. We thank Nancy for her enormous contributions and unwavering loyalty for more than two decades.

Nancy will work with us to find a successor and to ensure a seamless transition. Her future includes writing a book and much more traveling—for fun.

On this occasion, Nancy said: “For the last 21 years, I have been lucky enough to have my dream job—one that has allowed me to build an extraordinarily gifted team of editors; to collaborate with T+L’s talented publisher, Jay Meyer; and to play a role in the ever interesting—and changing— world of travel. I have taken great pride in being part of Time Inc., and will miss so many of the people I have worked with here, but I am eager to move on to a new adventure, and to hand over the reins and huge opportunities of this brand to a new editor.”

Please join us in thanking Nancy for her inspired leadership of the T+L brand and in wishing her a great future.

Best,

Evelyn and Norm

Novogrod goes out on a high note, both in terms of ad pages and revenue. For the first half of 2014, advertising pages are up 3% over the previous year, despite an overall magazine industry slump of -6%. T+L also ranked first among travel publications for the year by MIN Online.

Numbers from the Association of Magazine Media tell a similar story for the first quarter of the year (the Association’s Q2 numbers are not yet available), and for 2013, during which T+L was the top performer among all travel magazines.

First Quarter 2014

2013 Vs. 2012