Nikki Ogunnaike Is Harper’s Bazaar’s New Digital Director

Nikki Ogunnaike is getting ready to return to a familiar place — well, virtually anyway.

Samira Nasr, editor in chief of Hearst’s Harper’s Bazaar, has tapped Ogunnaike to take on the digital director role at the glossy fashion publication at the end of the month, overseeing both digital and social platforms. She succeeds Joyann King, who departed this summer to work at Elle Decor and Town & Country.

Ogunnaike joins from Condé Nast-owned GQ, where she was deputy fashion director for the past year, but she knows Hearst Tower well. Prior to GQ, she worked at Hearst’s Elle.com between 2015 and 2019, first as senior fashion editor and later as style director. She has also held editorial roles at Glamour, InStyle and Vanity Fair.

“I have known Nikki since she was a junior editor and have watched her grow through the years,” Nasr said. “She has great instincts, thinks ambitiously and knows that to be an editor in 2020, it is about understanding the brand and knowing how to tell stories and create content that works across all its platforms.”

Ogunnaike, who has previously worked with Nasr at both Elle and InStyle, added: “In this year of 2020 — this year of change — and everything that’s going on in the world right now, I couldn’t be more excited to be returning to a place that has incredibly smart and powerful and diverse women at the helm.”

As for her vision for Harper’s Bazaar’s digital offering, she said she wants “to lean into the culture of fashion and style” — how she’s always approached fashion by using it as a storytelling tool.

Nasr has been busy rounding out her team since joining Bazaar at the beginning of July from Vanity Fair, where she was executive fashion director. In addition to Ogunnaike, she has appointed Leah Chernikoff executive editor; Kaitlyn Greenidge, features director across all platforms, and Laura Genninger as the magazine’s first creative director since Stephen Gan left for Elle in 2018.

After having been separated for a while under ousted president Troy Young, Harper’s Bazaar’s print and digital teams have now been reintegrated.

For more, see:

Samira Nasr Makes Three New Hires at Harper’s Bazaar

Joyann King Swaps Harper’s Bazaar for Elle Decor, Town & Country

Hearst Lays Off 59 Staffers at O, The Oprah Magazine

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