W is a monthly American fashion magazine published by Condé Nast, who purchased original owner Fairchild Publications in 1999. It was created in 1972 by the publisher of sister magazine Women's Wear Daily, James Brady. The magazine is an oversize format – ten inches wide and thirteen inches tall. Stefano Tonchi is the editor of W; Lucy Kriz is the vice president and publisher. W magazine has a reader base of nearly half a million, 469,000 of which are annual subscribers. 80 percent of the magazine's readers are female and have an average household income of $135,840.
Often the subject of controversy, W magazine has featured stories and covers which have provoked mixed responses from its intended audience. In July 2005, W produced a 60-page Steven Klein portfolio of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt entitled "Domestic Bliss". The shoot was based upon Pitt's idea of the irony of the perfect American family; set in 1963, the photographs mirror the era when 1960s disillusionment was boiling under the facade of pristine 1950s suburbia.