After eight years at Glamour magazine, Cork woman Samantha Barry has announced she is stepping down as editor-in-chief and leaving parent company Condé Nast.
Barry took to her Instagram account to share the news.
In the post, she said: “After eight phenomenal years at Glamour I’m stepping away.
“As the title’s business model evolved, I made clear to Anna and leadership at Condé that this was the right moment to leave and pursue new projects,” said Barry, referring to Anna Wintour, the former long-time editor of Vogue and chief content officer at Condé Nast who championed the Irish woman’s career.
She said stepping away was “something I’ve been thinking about for a while and with changes to our global operations now is the time”.
“I’m enormously proud of what we built together and the amazing people that make up the Glamour teams around the world,” she added.
During her time at Glamour, Barry oversaw a big shift from print to digital publishing for the fashion title, pushing to grow its audience and revenues through social media and other digital platforms.
She described working alongside Wintour, “who championed me at every turn”, as “one of the great professional privileges”.
She said “storytelling has always been at the heart of my career and ambitions” and she is excited by what comes next.
Barry held the role at Glamour since 2018 and in 2024 she was appointed as the first global editorial director for Glamour.
Barry, who hails from Ballincollig, moved to New York in 2014 to work with CNN. She previously worked with RTÉ and the BBC.
She was headhunted by Wintour for the role at Glamour magazine.
Barry’s departure comes with other changes at the publishing giant on Thursday including the closure of Self magazine, the health and fitness publication, after nearly 50 years, the New York Times reported.
Condé Nast chief executive Roger Lynch told employees that the publisher’s overall business was profitable and ended 2025 with revenue growth, adding thatnew changes were aimed at positioning “the company for continued growth”.
Lynch said Glamour’s international editions in Germany, Spain and Mexico would close and Wired’s print magazine in Italy will also shut down.
“Taken together, Wired in Italy, Self and the affected Glamour markets represent a little over 1 per cent of our overall revenue,” Lynch wrote in the memo.
“They also remain unprofitable and continuing to operate them in their current form limits our ability to invest in the ideas and areas that will drive future growth,” he said.
He said Glamour would focus its efforts on the US and British markets with fashion and beauty recommendations, prioritising social and video content, licensing opportunities and other revenue streams.