It's so last year: Vanity Fair abandons the 'green issue'

Spring has sprung, and everything is going green. Everything, that is, except Vanity Fair, which has decided to ditch its annual "green issue". For the past three years, the monthly glossy has made much of dedicating its May issue to the environment: from Leonardo DiCaprio posing on an iceberg to last year's open letter from Robert Kennedy Jnr to the next president calling for action on global warming. This year, the incipient tradition has been quietly dropped.

Condé Nast, publisher of Vanity Fair, argues that the environment has become so integral to the news agenda that there is no longer a need for a dedicated issue. "Vanity Fair remains committed to covering the environment, and we'll spread our coverage throughout the year, instead of relegating the bulk of it to a specific issue" a spokeswoman says.

But others interpret the move as a sign that the environment is slipping down the agenda, overtaken by the economic crisis. This theory is backed by new research showing that coverage of the environment has fallen significantly. The latest figures from TNS Media Intelligence, a research firm, show that national newspaper coverage of environmental issues – including climate change, global warming, green consumerism and sustainability – fell by 27 per cent in 2008. In the first quarter, there were 3,866 articles published on green issues, compared with 2,811 in the final quarter.

Vanity Fair admits that the recession has had a bearing: "With so much else going on relating to the global financial crisis, we have been focusing on that of late". Environmentalists are concerned that the decision may have an unwelcome effect on the perception of green issues. "It is vital that green living is not treated as a trend that comes and goes, but that it becomes part of the way we live," says Colin Butfield, head of campaigns at WWF.

For other magazines, the environment remains, for now, an important issue. Prospect, the cerebral monthly, recently launched a section dedicated to science in response to a readers' survey, and, says a spokeswoman, the environment is "more important to us than ever". Reader's Digest is launching its own "eco" issue in June, featuring a piece by Prince Charles on how to save the world. And even within Condé Nast, other titlesremain committed to the environment, although none has had a green issue. This, according to Nicky Eaton, the head of publicity for Condé Nast UK, "was always a concept owned by Vanity Fair".

Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair's redoubtable editor, may have been encouraged to drop the green issue by the release of TNS's figures, which were published around the time when the green issue would have been planned. But it is more likely to have been the whimsy of the fashion world that affected his decision – three years is a long time for any trend.

Vanity Fair may just be doing what it does best – staying one step ahead of the times. But in PR terms, axing the green issue could be an own goal. "Reducing the coverage of green issues would be extremely disappointing," says Andy Atkins, the executive director of Friends of the Earth. "The media has a vital role to play in the efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change – we need accurate and incisive reporting to press for real environmental solutions and to expose the ineffectiveness of phoney fixes such as carbon offsetting."

The argument that the economy is now of greater concern than the environment does not wash with some. "Maybe it [Vanity Fair] sees green issues as a luxury to be dropped in these tough times. If that's why, then it has misunderstood the nature of the crisis, and the things we need to do to solve it," says Zac Goldsmith, a former editor of The Ecologist and prospective Tory MP. "The recession makes the environmental cause more, not less relevant. We can emerge from this recession with a green economy where green choices currently available only to the wealthy become available to everyone."

For now, Graydon Carter continues to be popular with environmentalists. On Wednesday, he attended the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) "Forces of Nature" gala dinner in New York, mingling with environmentally conscious celebrities including Paul McCartney and his daughter, Stella. But if his magazine has sparked an unwelcome trend across magazine publishing, he may find life on the wrong side of the green lobby rather less rosy.