Deborah Joseph, Glamour U.K.’s European Editorial Director, to Step Down

LONDON — Condé Nast is losing another one of its top staffers in another summer shakeup.

Glamour U.K.’s European editorial director Deborah Joseph is stepping down after seven years at the helm of the women’s magazine, WWD has learned. 

“Deborah has been a fantastic editor and collaborator for almost a quarter of a century at Condé Nast, and has taken Glamour into a golden, digital-first era. She leaves it in fantastic health, with a strong team in place. I hugely look forward to seeing what she does next,” said Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s global content officer and editor in chief of American Vogue, in a statement.

Joseph called her staffers into a meeting on Friday afternoon to reveal the news. She will remain at the magazine for another three months.

“I’ve made the difficult decision to leave Glamour and move onto the next chapter of my life. The past seven years have been the best — and most fun-filled, of my career. I couldn’t be prouder of the work we’ve done together, pivoting Glamour from a print to a digital brand in the U.K. and Europe,” she said in an email seen by WWD.

A successor has not yet been named, though it’s possible that Joseph’s deputy editor, Camilla Kay, could be an early contender for her role.

Joseph was recently tasked with overseeing the global editions of German and Spanish Glamour. 

In her email, she nodded to her peers. “Not to mention working with my brilliant partners-in-crime Sam Barry, a brilliant editor and friend, [editor in chief of Glamour U.S.] and Camilla Kay, my creative sounding board and ride-or-die,” she said.

Joseph was instrumental in transitioning Glamour from a dying print magazine into a digital platform with thoughtful essays and takes on popular culture.

Joseph, who studied English language and literature at the University of Nottingham, began her career at Condé Nast on the entertainment desk as an editor on Glamour when it was still a print magazine.

She then moved to the British tabloid newspaper Daily Mail for a year in 2005 and returned to Condé Nast to edit Brides magazine for five-and-a-half years and then was moved to edit Easy Living magazine for just under two years.

According to Joseph’s LinkedIn, post-Easy Living she worked as a content consultant and editor for brands such as Jenny Packham, Tui, Peanut, ShopUp and more.

Joseph returned to Glamour in November 2017 as its editor in chief and was promoted to European editorial director in 2021 by Wintour.

Last month, WWD reported that Sarah Harris, the global network lead and European deputy editor for Vogue, was stepping into a new role as editor at large after returning from maternity leave.

The overall editorial direction of Vogue and Glamour is set by Wintour, who has solidified her position overseeing the company’s editorial operations over the last few years, in large part by pushing out the editors in chief at the various global editions and replacing them with lower-level deputy editors who work under her.

Condé Nast has been undergoing a years-long restructuring and chief executive officer Roger Lynch revealed last November that the company was planning a 5 percent staff reduction (or about 300 employees) across its numerous titles.

The announcement of layoffs followed a top-line restructuring in October across editorial, content development and branded content that saw Condé Nast Entertainment head Agnes Chu, among others, leave the company.