Hao Fang (郝舫), the editor of China Rolling Stone, has put a scan of the cover of the second issue of the magazine on his blog. He titled the post Smells Like Rolling Stone Spirit, and subtitled it:
Cover: Raped
Content: Keep up
The post is translated below:
Making a magazine, there’s nothing to give you as a gift. Send you a magazine and forget about it. Especially for those who are worried that the magazine is dead.
Every day I’ll give out five magazines. If you want a copy leave your address [in the comments]. First come first serve. I should be able to put them in the mail next Monday. I’ll send them out for ten days, because those are as many copies as I have.
Comrades who know me in Beijing and Shanghai, just find me directly. The last issue [Rolling Stone China issue 1] sold out really a long time ago, so don’t ask me about it.
As you can see from the cover, the Rolling Stone logo is not there in any form at all, but apparently the content of the magazine does include articles translated from the U.S. edition. It would seem that One Media (the Hong Kong company that has the license for the Chinese Rolling Stone from Wenner Media) is still large and in charge. Let’s see if they can make any money after all this self-inflicted trauma.
Best of luck to editor Hao Fang in taking on his critics (see Hong Kong Standard article linked below), and doing something that is best described in Chinese as 擦屁股, wiping the ass, or cleaning up the mess someone else has made.
- Hao Fang’s blog (Chinese)
- AdAge China:
Rolling Stone stalled after first issue
- Hong Kong Standard: Magazine rocks under new name
- Business Week: Rolling Stone: A Hit in China?
- The Guardian: Banned by Beijing – but Rolling Stone gathers no kudos
- Danwei (in reverse chronological order):
– Rolling Stone China?
– Massage Milk on the Chinese version of Rolling Stone
– Rolling Stone China: a dud that will probably succeed
– Rolling Stone Hits Wall?
– Sensationalist headlines at the Wall Street Journal: foreign magazines in China