Editor of GQ Magazine, Dylan Jones, was very open about his views on the future of print journalism in a talk with students on Thursday. He claimed that print publications are inevitably not going to be able to survive in the modern age because of readerships increasingly moving to online formats.

When asked about what makes GQ as successful as it is, he was fast to answer saying that the secret lies in keeping up with technology. No matter what changes occur in the modern word, journalism has to keep up or be left behind- its as simple as that.

GQ have done this by firstly launching a tablet app approximately four years ago and a new mobile app recently in the last 4-5 months. The mobile edition of the magazine is already accounts for 2-3% of GQ’s readers, and Dylan is positive that it will continue to grow and be successful.

The app seems to appeal to the audience because of its simplicity. There are no fancy changes made to the original content of the print version, and the articles are simply made mobile friendly. This means that viewers are able to access longer articles on their mobile with little or no changes to the way that they normally consume the media.

This successful digitalisation of GQ magazine seems to be a hit, and may pave the way for organisations that want to move online in the future. After all, the simplest ideas are the best.

Another key aspect that he mentioned was GQ’s tendency to hire young people. Dylan admitted that although older people are good value because they are experienced at what they do, young people are what keeps GQ in the know about current trends among their target audience. He admitted that he rarely employs writers over the age of 30 as the demographic that he is aiming at needs a more youthful vibe.

When asked about how the celebrities that appear on the front cover of each other are chosen Dylan said that it was a joint effort by the team to find someone suitable each time. Interestingly, Dylan has chosen the celebrity for the January 2015 issue, and this top secret celeb seems to be fairly controversial as there is a bet in the office about how well it will sell(!)

Dylan didn’t  give away who it was, so we’ll just have to wait and see how well his intuition has served him in this particular case. In GQ’s case I guess its a matter of watch this space to see where the future takes them.

Picture: screenshot from GQ mobile app