The Face closed again in 2026 — an ad-funded relaunch that never found a viable model

The Face announced on March 27, 2026 that it would cease operations, seven years after being relaunched under Wasted Talent. Its Spring 2026 issue, published earlier that month, was the final edition. It was the second time the cult British title had closed: it ran from 1980 to 2004, returned briefly in 2017 with Harry Styles on the cover, and was relaunched properly in 2019.

Wasted Talent CEO Jerry Perkins said the magazine was "unable to sustain its current model." The publication had been built largely on advertising partnerships and continued to incur financial losses. Longtime editor-in-chief Matthew Whitehouse, who had led the title since the relaunch, had already departed in January to join Farfetch as Head of Editorial Content and Creative.

Perkins said the pause would be used "to regroup and reimagine the brand for a new era," and that the company believed the brand's equity could eventually support a direct-to-consumer model. He apologised that the closure meant saying goodbye to "a number of very talented people," especially the young new editorial team. Plans for a first international edition, The Face China, were abandoned.

Closed again in 2026 after seven years of ad dependence; editor's January exit left it without its defining voice.

The relaunch never escaped dependence on advertising, an income stream that was shrinking exactly as the magazine's production and editorial costs stayed high.

The business model was never diversified into subscription or other recurring revenue, leaving the brand with no source of income when ad partnerships dried up.

Key leadership churn — the editor-in-chief who carried the relaunch left in January — left the brand without its defining voice less than two months before the closure.

A celebrated relaunch is not a business model. Finance a revival on advertising alone and it inherits the same fragility that killed the original title.

After the March closure, Wasted Talent Publishing GmbH sold The Face to C86 Holdings, a Singapore-based company founded by Malaysian entrepreneur Meng Ru Kuok, which said it planned a return of the title.