The House That Nikki Built
The Marie Curie and Marie Antoinette of newsletters is on the mic with Marie Claire's Nikki Ogunnaike—an EIC who evolves like it's her job. (It is.)
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Spreaders on the verge,
“You’re so chill!” said no one to your Spreaditors, ever. Thankfully, there’s someone in this business who’s cool, calm, and collected enough to meet this chaotic media moment. That’s Nikki Ogunnaike, the smart and decisive EIC of Marie Claire.
Nikki arrived at MC in 2023 and promptly began giving the entire industry lessons in the art of modern editor-in-chiefing (she has her own newsletter and podcast in addition to the website, magazine, and events arm to manage, NBD). The daughter of immigrant parents who worked in retail—her dad at CVS, her mom at Staples—Nikki’s been training for this job since college at UVA. She has zigged and zagged as the industry shifted, leapfrogging through an impressively wide variety of roles (writer, fashion editor, digital editor, print editor, and—oh yeah—social media-savvy multiplatform operator) at basically all the glossies (Vanity Fair, Glamour, InStyle, GQ, Elle—where we got to know her—and Harper’s Bazaar). How’s that for running the gauntlet?
For our latest episode on the mic for Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!), we talked to Nikki about being the editor in chief of a women’s magazine “as the job exists today.” What does “magazine editor” even mean now? (And what do you wear to do it?) How does she navigate being a progressive voice in this “womanosphere” shitshow of a moment? How is the magazine evolving to meet a new reader, or should we say follower? And how is she making sure it stays the same old MC?
Also: Are we saying “girlboss” again?
Listen and learn—we did.
Rachel & Maggie
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