How Vanity Fair pulled off its surprise Caitlyn Jenner exclusive

(Image credit: Illustrated Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

published 2 June 2015

If you're someone who takes pride in keeping up with the Kardashians, yesterday's surprise reveal of Caitlyn Jenner — the post-transition identity of the Olympian formerly known as Bruce Jenner — likely came as a shock. The extended Kardashian clan can hardly do anything without being trailed by paparazzi, (even Jenner's decision to become a woman was heavily rumored before it was officially announced in a tell-all interview with Diane Sawyer in April) but through some serious ingenuity and tight security, Vanity Fair was somehow able to keep Jenner's post-transition identity and the accompanying photo shoot completely secret.

How did the magazine do it? Mashable has more:

The magazine hired security for the shoot and forced people to give up their cell phones to prevent anything from leaking. A spokesperson for VF told Mashable that the magazine had been in talks with Caitlyn Jenner since January and did not give her any compensation for the exclusive.The magazine was concerned about leaks and took security measures "every step of the way," including on the photo shoot, in the VF editorial office and at the printing plant for the upcoming issue. The story and pictures were done on a single computer that was never connected to the Internet, with the assets put on a thumb drive every night and then deleted from the computer. The story was even hand-delivered to the printer. [Mashable]

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Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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