Twenty years before she was appointed editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia, Edwina McCann started her career at the title — published by Rupert Murdoch’s News Magazines — as a fashion assistant. After seven years there, McCann moved onto fashion-related editorships at The Australian and Grazia before joining Harper’s Bazaar Australia as editor-in-chief. She replaced Kirstie Clements in a shakeup that was said to shock the Australian fashion community.
When she was poached to lead Vogue after three years at Harper’s Bazaar, one of McCann’s key goals was to increase digital engagement for the 50-odd year old brand, which already had a million unique visitors to its website. "I don't think Vogue is just a magazine. It's not. I'm going to be editor-in-chief of Vogue the brand," she told The Australian. "I would like obviously to get print sales up but digital is very much a focus — digital is the long-term future.
"The idea of being editor-in-chief over not only the magazine but also the digital assets is what was so attractive about the position. But the digital assets need to be reinvigorated, potentially redesigned. The magazine is the heart and soul of the brand, but I'm just as interested in a Facebook friend."
Vogue Australia launched in 1959 with Rosemary Cooper and has since seen renowned journalists like Sheila Scotter, June McCallum, Nancy Pilcher and Marion Hume at its helm. Part of McCann’s initiatives at Vogue Australia also include the Vogue-wide healthy body initiative that represented a commitment on the part of the editors to promote positive and healthy body images.
In November 2018, McCann was awarded the Australian Fashion Laureate’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
