Mademoiselle published Plath for 66 years — nobody knew what to do with it after

Mademoiselle ran for 66 years — founded in 1935, bought by Sam Newhouse from Street & Smith in 1959 — and in its prime printed Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, David Sedaris and Maureen Dowd. By the late 1990s it was a magazine without a lane: too big to be edgy, too established to be new. A 'Sassy-fication' push borrowed a younger magazine's voice; a mass-market swing put supermodels on the cover; neither stuck.

Former editor Elizabeth Crow, who had steered a brief return to profit before leaving, said it plainly: 'The secret is that nobody really knew what to do with Mademoiselle. I really ran out of concepts, and I don't think James Truman had one either. And I think they're really excited about Lucky.' Lucky — Condé Nast's own shopping-magazine start-up — was the company's stated future, and Mademoiselle's young-women readers were its target too; Marie Claire and Jane squeezed the same space from outside.

On October 1, 2001, Condé Nast announced the magazine would cease publication. Spokeswoman Maurie Perl cited the weak advertising climate, worsened by the September 11 attacks; industry observers noted the title had not been profitable for years, and ad pages had already fallen nearly 18% in the first eight months of 2001. Circulation was still 1.1 million — an audience the company chose to hand to Lucky rather than keep.