In an editor’s letter accompanying the new issue, Welch hailed Ocean, who also styled the cover shoot, “the best, most boundary-shattering and timeless artist of his generation. But especially in this niche-driven era, if you try to be everything to everyone, you end up not being much of anything to anyone,” Welch wrote. “This idea that GQ has a super clear understanding of the world, understanding of itself and vision of the future and is delivering a very specific, very smart, very fresh thing to an identifiable group of people is much more bankable than like, ‘We’re for men!’” he added. Welch’s tenure begins amid major shifts within GQ’s parent company, Condé Nast, which also owns Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, among many other long-running magazines. The company’s CEO was also forced out, and employees have faced several rounds of layoffs.

Source: Huffington Post January 10, 2019 15:56 UTC