After nearly 40 years helming Architectural Digest, 71-year-old Paige Rense Noland will retire this August, according to a press release from parent company Condé Nast. Noland will remain on the masthead as editor emeritus, having grown the magazine from having a readership of 50,000 to now something like 850,000. A legendarily tough — some would even say prickly — defender of herself and her magazine, Rense reportedly bragged about killing off her in-house competition, House & Garden. Said Rense: “I have enjoyed the privilege of editing this great magazine for several decades and now am excited to move on to my next chapter — writing a book that chronicles the remarkable life and career of my late husband, artist Kenneth Noland.” A successor has not yet been named.
