Have RS and VF always been known for investigative/political journalism? I’ve always thought of them as a music magazine and fashion magazine, respectively. (note: I’ve never been a faithful reader of either)
Rolling Stone was founded in 1967, and they’ve been doing political reporting at least since Hunter S. Thompson’s coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign.
I remember both magazines doing serious investigative journalism in the '80s and '90s.
Vanity Fair was a smart entertainment magazine, a glossier version of The New Yorker from 1913 to 1936. It didn’t do journalism, though neither did The New Yorker until about the time of WWII. The current version was restarted by publisher Condé Nast in 1983. It pays about the highest rates in the magazine business and so can get the very best writers to work for them. Tina Brown took over as editor in 1984. She started with extended gossipy profiles of Hollywood celebs by a better set of reporters than anyone People could hire but also started doing more serious journalism. Graydon Carter, formerly of New York magazine, took over and continued that style.
*Rolling Stone *started expanding on purely music coverage with the 1968 election, a year after its founding. It gained national attention when Hunter Thompson and Timothy Crouse reported on the 1972 election leading to the seminal books *Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail *and The Boys on the Bus.
So the answer is pretty much yes, except maybe for a few months right at the beginning, both the current *Vanity Fair *and Rolling Stone have been two of the most important venues for investigative journalism in the country.
My family has gotten VF for years and years. (The original subscription was a Christmas gift from a family friend; she renewed it for years, and now my parents’ house is full of old issues.) It is not a fashion magazine at all, although it does a lot of profiles of actors. It’s a great place to read about the latest scandals about gay art dealers in New York, that sort of thing. Lots of scandals about wealthy East Coast socialites who are famous despite the fact that you’ve never heard of them.