Modern Luxury, which owns DC luxury magazine Capitol File, announced a plan Tuesday to stop printing the glossy magazine and transform it and its West Coast sibling LA Confidential into “national digital destinations” in the beginning of 2020. Modern Luxury DC, also known as DC Magazine, will “incorporate elements of Capitol File, including the publication’s distribution on Capitol Hill and hosting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner After Party,” associate publisher Jessica Powers told employees in an email Tuesday afternoon.
Capitol File editor-in-chief Michael Clements will leave the company, Modern Luxury CEO Michael Dickey tells Washingtonian, and former DC Magazine editor-in-chief Michael McCarthy will return as the top editor in this market. Capitol File will “be a different product” that covers “different subjects in the market than what it currently does,” Dickey says. Modern Luxury plans to announce within 30 days who will lead it; Dickey promises the announcement will “make a big splash.”
Modern Luxury bought Capitol File in 2017, following a shakeup that included publisher Suzy Jacobs leaving and Editor Amy Moeller coming over to Washingtonian, where she edits our weddings magazine.
The company may still brand its White House Correspondents’ Association dinner party as Capitol File, Dickey says, and it may do special issues around that event and the inauguration, Dickey says. “The brand is not dead at all.”
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
