Esquire vs. GQ

GQ is by far North America's best smelling magazine.

 

Because they’d get lost in his jacket?

 

Okay, that's funny.

This thread has made me nostalgic. Look at those names. Whatever happened to @WaylonJennings? Good dude, and he cared about writing so much.

 

He died 17 years ago.

Strange fact: He was supposed to be on the flight with Buddy Holly, etc., but he gave up his seat.

EDIT: Hah, sorry, I thought you meant the actual dude...

 

Oh my God. Dying. Time for a second cup of coffee, my friend.

 

Interesting to go back and reread this thread.

Waylon probably got out. It's the smart move. Hard to make a living in magazines these days.

GQ, Esquire and Vanity Fair are all struggling to find new editorial identities.

Graydon Carter was easy to mock at VF, but is proving impossible to replace.

GQ and Esquire are both gut renovations. Too early to tell which will win over more luxury advertisers, and with them that audience of young men interested in watches, shaving and British tailoring. But the Fielden years at Esquire hurt the brand more than helped it.

I'm struggling to think of any noteworthy literary journalism either title has done since the regimes change.

The New Yorker remains best in show. New York magazine is still very good, and will change some more once the Adam Moss imprint is gone and the magazine is fully David Haskell's. Jake Silverstein is killing it at NYT Magazine. The best-looking book around is another Times product, T Magazine.

Rolling Stone is still limping along.

Harper's, the Atlantic, 5280, the California Sunday Magazine are all good. National Geographic, Smithsonian, Outside, Texas Monthly. The same.

Adapt or die.

 

Christ, Fielden was completely ill-suited for the job. Couldn't fill the big-boy pants at all, and the move to all things millennial was one that turned off longtime readers — like me.

Now come mow my lawn.

 

Not all the way through this*, but another state-of-the-state.

*Finished. It's a pretty detailed look inside the current Conde Nast. I recommend it.

nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/conde-nast-anna-wintour-roger-lynch.html

 

Anybody ever pick up a British GQ? Those things are incredibly thick -- at least double the American edition on any given month. To me, it says a lot about the respective markets and the appetite for the product in the respective markets.

 

Makes sense. If you knock around London for a few days you notice, especially in the financial districts, the astonishing number of peacocks on their way to work. Remarkable tailoring and suiting and shoes and a great deal of energy and money spent to look good. Young and old. Much more stylish than their equivalent in New York or Paris - or London women, who tend toward frump.

 

Well, I hope wherever Waylon ended up, he made a success of it.

I don't know if it's my Twitter feed or what, but the only places I regularly see stories recommended are The New Yorker, the Times Mag, the Atlantic, and Smithsonian. I haven't seen a GQ or Esquire story hyped in years, I don't think. The one shot Esquire had, the Bryan Singer story, went to the Atlantic.

Fielden was a massive foof.

 

The last big splash from either was the Dylann Roof piece in GQ. But that was under Nelson. Will Welch seems much more interested in fashion qua fashion. There's nothing wrong with that, it's always paid the bills, but I expect to see less literary journalism going forward.

Same, I'm afraid, for Esquire.