From Ballincollig to Manhattan: The remarkable career of Samantha Barry
Samantha Barry attends The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 01, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
After eight years leading one of the US's largest women's magazines, Cork native Samantha Barry has announced she is stepping down as editor-in-chief of Glamour and leaving the publication's parent company, Condé Nast.Â
Following a tenure that began with being headhunted by one of fashion's most powerful figures, Anna Wintour, Barry's resignation comes amid a significant change for the women-focused magazine, which has struggled with profitability across several markets. It also follows a series of changes at Condé Nast, including the closure of health and fitness magazine Self, as part of the publisher's wider restructuring.
Announcing her departure on social media, the editor-in-chief said that she "made it clear to Anna and leadership at Conde" that this was the right moment to pursue other project.
Raised in Ballincollig in the 1980s in a household that championed storytelling, Barry was a media consumer from a young age.Â
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Growing up, her childhood and teenage years consisted of reading the Evening Echo, tuning into Morning Ireland, and watching the 6.01 and 9 o'clock news with her family.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner's ieBusiness Podcast in late 2024, she recalls: "Growing up in an Irish home, the radio was always on. The newspapers were coming in. If you're on the bus, you're talking about what's happening either in your locality or even abroad.
"There is a curiosity among Irish people. There is also storytelling. Irish people over-index compared to the rest of the world in terms of how they consume media and news.
"It was just so inherently part of my childhood that it didn't seem unusual for me to want to be in the media."
That ambition brought Barry to University College Cork (UCC) in 1999, where she obtained a BA in English and psychology. Following her graduation in 2002, she went on to study in Dublin City University (DCU), obtaining her Master's in journalism in 2004.
From there, Barry started working freelance with RTE as a reporter, researcher and news editor across both TV and radio. She worked there for almost four years, before moving on to Newstalk, where she worked as a reporter and later, foreign correspondent.
During this time, Barry travelled across South America, India and Australia, reporting on various international stories for an Irish audience.Â
In early 2010, the Cork native moved to Papua New Guinea where she worked as a content advisor for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. That advisory position then brought her to London in 2011, where, after a short stint working as a media consultant, Barry took up a new role as a journalist and social media producer with BBC World News, where she cultivated new audiences amid the corporations digital transformation.
In 2014, Barry moved across the Atlantic, becoming the global head of social and emerging media at CNN in New York.Â
"New York was never my ultimate plan, it was London," Barry recalls. "I loved New York, I did my J1 there the year after September 11th.Â
"But I didn't have that urge to go back and live there. I moved over the CNN role after being with the BBC for four or five years. At the time, CNN was trying new things, including how to move to social. I flew over, met the team, and the opportunity was just too amazing to turn down."
Barry became the eighth editor of Glamour in 2018, with Wintour, who was Condé Nast's artistic director at the time, calling the Cork woman "fearless," adding: "Sam understands social media as a tool for storytelling and reporting; a way to support social conversation and the ever-changing contours of what’s cool."
During her time as editor-in-chief, Barry transitioned from breaking stories to more long-form stories, as well as overseeing the transition of Glamour into a digital-first brand, and evolving the annual Women of the Year Awards into a global event.
"I came from breaking news... Nobody comes to Glamour for breaking news. I had to change my thinking to what were the larger-term projects we could work on. What are the bigger things that we could get her head around."
In her later years at Glamour, Barry, a veteran in social media, began to speak up about the threat of AI on journalism and democracy.
Speaking in Kerry in 2024, she said that while she had always used social media as part of her work, tech giants had made it increasingly difficult for news publications to survive on their platforms, calling out Facebook in particular for making it increasingly difficult for news websites to survive on their platforms.
“When we talk about AI, I would be very conscious about how journalism is funding or feeding these large language models with it. I would have a lot of issues with that."
In late 2024, Barry was appointed Glamour’s first global editorial director, overseeing all content strategy for Glamour across the brand’s global editions in Germany, Mexico and Latin America, Spain, Britain, and the US.
Speaking on her appointment, Wintour commended Barry for her "impeccable editorial instincts" and powerful advocacy.Â
Now, just 18 months later, Samantha Barry's tenure at Condé Nast is coming to an end.
"It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while and with changes to our global operations now is the time," the resigning editor-in-chief said.
"We took the brand to new digital heights, diversified our audience and revenue, and launched campaigns that genuinely moved the needle for women. Working alongside Anna Wintour, who championed me at every turn, has been one of my great professional privileges.Â
"Storytelling has always been at the heart of my career and ambitions, and I’m excited by what comes next."
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