Graydon Carter Gives Up Air Mail Editor Reins As Sale Closes

As Puck, the media company led by co-founder and editor-in-chief Jon Kelly, scales up with the acquisition of Air Mail, founder Graydon Carter is stepping back.

On Thursday, Puck announced that it has bought Air Mail, the culture and lifestyle media company founded by Carter, the former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair.

Amid the sale, Julia Vitale, who currently serves as Air Mail’s deputy managing editor, has also been promoted to editor as Carter gives up his reins. He is expected to stay on for a limited time as a consultant.

“Air Mail was always envisioned as the weekend edition to a digital daily news engine. And in Puck we have the perfect alignment,”Carter said in a statement. “Sharp, crisp reporting on their end and international coverage of politics, the arts, and interesting scandals on ours. We feel that with Jon Kelly and Sarah Personette, we have ideal partners. And I have complete confidence in Julia Vitale, my colleague of ten years, who will be taking the reins of Air Mail. There truly is none better.”

Kelly added in a statement, “We’re beyond thrilled to welcome Air Mail to Puck. Graydon Carter is a titan and trailblazer of our industry and his decades of experience and success — inventing Spy, reinventing The New York Observer, and his heralded quarter-century transformation of Vanity Fair into a cultural institution — has shaped Air Mail’s inimitable voice and look. As I know well from experience, Graydon’s greatest talent has been as a mentor and teacher and he has elevated an extraordinarily talented new generation of leaders at Air Mail — starting with its brilliant new editor Julia Vitale. ”

Puck, which Kelly launched in 2021, centers on vertical newsletters with writers focusing on core areas such as politics, finance, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. As for Air Mail, it was founded in 2019 after Carter exitedVanity Fair in 2017. It’s also a digital weekly newsletter that focuses on trends, culture and news for a “global cosmopolitan audience.”

Puck was represented by Gunderson Dettmer in the sale. The Raine Group served as Air Mail’s financial advisor on the sale and Proskauer Rose LLP served as their legal counsel.