Bono, the U2 frontman who tried his hand at guest editing London's Independent newspaper and France's Libération, now will take on Vanity Fair.

Bono will be guest editor of the July issue of Vanity Fair, which will put aside some of its usual fare in favour of stories about Africa.

Bono, shown at the Grammy Awards in February 2006, will create a Vanity Fair issue devoted to stories on Africa.
(Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

"Bono will make a different issue about Africa than we would," Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter told the New York Times.

"I think there isn't one editor in the world who would not pay attention if Bono pulled up and said he wanted to edit a magazine."

Vanity Fair has already devoted an issue (March) to the environment and does considerable political reporting, but also devotes much of each issue to celebrities and glamour.

Bono, who has campaigned for debt relief and poverty reduction in Africa and focused attention on AIDS, said he was attracted to Vanity Fair because of its ability to tell stories well.

"We need to get better at storytelling…. We've got to get better at telling the success stories of Africa in addition to the horror stories," he said.

He said he was hoping for record sales of the July issue.

Carter described stories about Africa as a "tough sell," but said he thought the co-branding of Vanity Fair and Bono would appeal to readers.