Cleveland Native Liz Vaccariello Named "People Magazine" Editor

Vaccariello, a former Cleveland Magazine editor, will be in charge of a publication that reaches more than 25 million readers each week.

by Colleen Smitek | Mar. 6, 2022 | 1:33 PM

Mackenzie Stroh

She’s one of our own — and now she’s at the top of the masthead of one of the biggest magazines in the country.

Liz Vaccariello, a Cleveland native and former Cleveland Magazine editor, has been named the new editor of People magazine after two decades working in New York City for a handful of publications, including Reader’s Digest, Parents and Real Simple.

“In many ways, I’m going back to my journalism roots,” says Vaccariello. “I lived and learned personality journalism during my time writing for — then editing — Cleveland Magazine, as well as true crime and some investigative journalism.”

Vaccariello was with Cleveland Magazine from 1991 through 1999, during which time she created best-selling cover story concepts, like Rating the Suburbs, that still attract eyes today.

“Liz always had an uncanny ability to know what interested people,” says Cleveland Magazine chairman Lute Harmon Sr. “That’s her secret.”

Vaccariello lives in New Jersey with her husband, Steve Vaccariello, and their two children. Steve, a photographer, contributed to Cleveland Magazine in the 1990s. They return to Cleveland several times a year to visit family.

People, which has a circulation of over three million and publishes weekly, is a change of pace for Vaccariello who has spent her career at monthly publications. But, armed with the same strategy she used at Cleveland Magazine, she’s ready to go.

“There’s no better way to tell a story than through the people,” she says. “And that’s what People does better than anyone.”