Mitchell B Fox

History

Fox graduated from the State University of Stony Brook in 1977. He began his career at The New York Times where he worked for seven years, ultimately as Group Manager, Retail Advertising. In 1984, Fox left The New York Times to join Bergdorf Goodman as the advertising director. He was later promoted to Senior Vice President of Sales Promotion at Bergdorf Goodman.

Fox joined Condé Nast in 1989 when he became publisher of Details. Fox led the fledgling magazine to become the "Magazine of the Year" (1994) as noted by AdAge, and twice earned top ten honors (1993 and 1994) on AdWeek Magazine's "Hot List". His edgy vision for the ads in Details pushed boundaries compared to contemporary magazines. The New York Times called Fox's leadership at Details "one of Conde Nast's big success stories" with 41% increase in circulation in 1993.

In 1994, Fox was appointed Publisher of Vanity Fair. In 1996 Fox was named Conde Nast Publisher of the Year after managing a spectacular turnaround at Vanity Fair with a record number of ad pages, totaling 1,523 in 1996. Fox's leadership at Vanity Fair went on to break more records with 1,809 ad pages in 1997. Vanity Fair reached unprecedented heights with Fox as publisher in 1998 with 1,882 ad pages including fashion ads up 14% and beauty ads up 19%. Overall, Fox oversaw five straight years of record growth of Vanity Fair including its best year ever in 1999. Since Fox's arrival at Vanity Fair from Details in 1994, ad sales at Vanity Fair had risen by a "staggering" 69% by 1998. During his time as Publisher of Vanity Fair, Fox was also instrumental in developing and bringing the magazine's glamorous Academy Awards party into the spotlight.

Concurrently, in 1997, Fox was appointed Vice-President of Condé Nast in charge of Corporate Sales. In November 1999, he was promoted again to Senior Vice President, Corporate Sales. In 2001, Fox was named President and CEO of The Golf Digest Company, Advance Publications' titles Golf Digest, Golf For Women, Golf World, Golf World Business, and GolfDigest.com upon acquisition of these titles from The New York Times Company. In January 2007, Fox took over most of Mary Berner's responsibilities upon her departure from Condé Nast, adding W, WWD, DNR, FootWear News, The Condé Nast Bridal Group, and Bon Appétit to his existing responsibilities. Fox became Group President of Condé Nast in 2007 and was named one of the leaders of the magazine world by AdAge.

In early January, 2008, Fox was terminated by Condé Nast. The press reported that his multi-media, multi-platform strategy conflicted with existing plans for the company, leading to his ouster. Some media reports suggest the death of a longtime ally may explain his sudden departure from the company, and tabloids suggest motives of a rival, but many media sources do not provide information on the reason for his departure. The email he sent upon departure and the company's memo were leaked to BusinessWeek.

From Conde Nast, Fox became President/CEO of 8020 Media Company, a San Francisco web based media company that manages two online communities and associated magazines, JPGmag.com and Everywheremag.com. In an interview with Min Magazine he describes these innovative user-based media platforms as "democracies in action". In January 2009, Fox led the effort to sell 8020 Media, which was done successfully to a group of investors, and the company continues to thrive today and according to press reports "provides a robust model for how communities and publishers can collaborate to create compelling content".

Fox was a National Trustee of The First Tee, a charitable organization, and is a member of the Esteemed Council of Advisors for the Telluride Film Festival. Fox also represented his company as a member of the Board of Directors of The Magazine Publishers of America (MPA), and was a member of its Executive Committee.

Currently, Fox lives in NYC and has created a holding company (WGA Global Marketing, Inc.) with multiple businesses. He sits on the Board of Advisors of both the College of Business and the School of Journalism at Stony Brook University. Fox has also been a distinguished speaker at Stanford Business School and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. He served for two years at Pitney Bowes as the Executive Business Development Strategist in their global ecommerce division working with retailers and online merchants to grow their business globally. Fox has also become involved in MyGrove as Senior Advisor, a media company that targets active adult communities.

Fox was recruited to serve on the Board of Advisors of Viridian Capital Advisors, the leading investment bank in the cannabis industry. In 2016, he was recruited to be on the Board of Directors of Civilized.Life, a Los Angeles/Canada-based media company focused on the cannabis industry. As a lifestyle media brand, Civilized.Life attracts the well educated, well employed, often married, and very often with children mostly male readers. Civilized has become the number one digital publishing company in the Cannabis space, by diversifying into other platforms, such as Civilized Studios (video), Civilized Events, and ecommerce.