GQ China, officially called Zhizu GQ Magazine in China, must find a new local partner with a publishing license after splitting with its local publishing partner Zhizu Magazine, a subsidiary of China News Service, a state-owned news agency based in Beijing.
In the Chinese market, glossy fashion magazines are published as syndicates jointly with a state-owned company that assigns the publication its ISSN number and Chinese title and has the final say on all editorial content.
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GQ China was founded in September 2009 as a partnership between Condé Nast China and Zhizu of China News Service. In recent years, the relationship between GQ China and China News Service has been difficult, according to former GQ employees.
According to an email from Gill Zhou, Managing Director of Condé Nast China, to GQ China employees, GQ China has decided not to renew its five-year contract with Zhizu, effective immediately.
“Over the past few weeks, we have been working with our publishing partner Zhizu to support its renewed partnership license for GQ, a standard process that occurs every five years. During this process, we mutually agreed that it would be best for Condé Nast China and Zhizu not to proceed with this next phase of the partnership, effective today,” Zhou wrote in a memo to employees that the company provided to WWD.
“While we finalize these details, we are also working on a solution that will involve minimal changes to our publications across all platforms – print and social. During this time, our business will continue as usual and our editorial leaders will support us with workflows and projects,” Zhou continued.
“GQ remains a pillar of our business, and our GQ team is our absolute priority during this transition. We will continue to share updates with everyone in the coming days as we have them. Wendy Wang, our HR Director, and I can answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to reach out to us directly,” the memo concluded.
GQ China is currently headed by Rocco Liu, who many have speculated is in the running to become the next editor-in-chief of Vogue China, succeeding the controversial Margaret Zhang.
In 2016, Liu became editor-in-chief of GQ Lab, a digital spin-off of GQ China on WeChat, and built it into a digital fashion media powerhouse with millions of followers.
At the time, GQ Lab could charge around 500,000 renminbi, or $70,500, for a single social media post. Condé Nast China also announced at the time that GQ China became its most profitable edition due to GQ Lab’s success, generating revenue of 200 million renminbi in 2018, an amount equivalent to that of several European editions combined.
One of the project’s champions, Sophia Liao, the troubled CEO of Condé Nast China who resigned in September 2020, described GQ Lab’s huge success as “the rebirth of GQ,” according to local media coverage at the time.
Apart from WeChat, GQ Lab has more than 4.8 million followers on Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu.
To break down the barriers between content and commerce, GQ Lab editors recently started selling livestreams on Xiaohongshu, selling products ranging from Stanley mugs and Salomon sneakers to healthy snacks.
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