GQ Australia outlived its rivals — then traded 22 years of print for a website

GQ Australia ran for 22 years under News Corp as the country's men's luxury bi-month, outlasting its nearest competitor Men's Style, which had closed three years earlier. By 2020 it reached a monthly print audience of 104,000 — and it was printing in a year SMH called 'the publishing hellfire': coronavirus sales restrictions and an advertising drought were shutting titles and shedding staff across the industry.

On October 15, 2020, News Corp Australia announced with licensor Condé Nast that the November/December issue — on sale November 9 — would be the last. The brand would go 'digital first' in 2021: an expanded gq.com.au, social and video, e-commerce, podcasts, a daily newsletter. Luxury advertisers who still wanted the glossy page were told there would be no print edition in 2021. Managing director Nicholas Gray framed it as arithmetic: 'that's where GQ Australia's growth is coming from.' The site had grown 55.4% across the year; three in ten monthly users were 18 to 34.

Editor Jake Millar, appointed only that year, stayed on as editorial director of events and digital, though some redundancies were expected. The Men of the Year awards, thirteen years old, carried the brand's continuity. What ended was the proposition itself: a luxury magazine's cover price and its ad pages, replaced by reach and shopping links.