Rolling Stone hits the Great Wall

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 4 April 2006 at 13:50
Tags: Journalism, United States

Has Rolling Stone run full tilt into the Great Wall? It seems like it.

Plans to launch a Chinese edition of the popular American magazine have run into problems. It involves what’s been described as a bureaucratic bungle over the licensing of the title. The first Chinese language edition – with the usual scrawling Rolling Stone logo across the top, but the name Audio Visual World in Chinese and smaller type underneath – hit the news-stands in China in late March.

According to Advertising Age, it was a big hit and sold out within days. It featured a mix of local stories and translated features and pictures from the US edition.

The cover featured Cui Jian, one of the first Chinese musicians to incorporate Western rock into his songs. His best-known song, “Nothing to My Name�, was often sung by students during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989.

However it wasn’t the contents that apparently upset the Chinese authorities. Chinese regulations stipulate that a foreign title of a magazine must be “significantly smaller� than the local title. Although the magazine has not been officially banned - at least not yet – changes will have to be made, it’s said, before the next issue can be published.

Officially Rolling Stone hasn’t commented on the problem, but in American publishing circles, it’s seen as one of the difficulties of putting out a publication in China without making sure it has the official blessing – and approval – of the government. And conforms to all the rules.

Tags: Journalism, United States