If you haven’t heard, Mark Anthony Green will be taking over Glenn O’Brien’s famous Style Guy column at GQ. Today, O’Brien talks candidly about the topic at Four Pins and opens up about his last days at GQ.
First of all, I find the notion that this is a “rebranding” of the Style Guy offensive. I created the Style Guy, not GQ. It existed before I went to GQ. It had a long run in Details. I published a book under that title. It’s not something that existed before. It’s not like “managing editor” or “film critic.” Their proprietary attitude toward what I’ve done is not only insulting, but really unoriginal. They could have at least called their replacement the “Style Intern.”
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To have had a brilliant success for fifteen years with something I created and then to try to make it appear like suddenly I wasn’t modern enough or they needed to go younger is completely dishonest. In fact it is entirely about going cheaper. Look at the top contributors over the last several years. Look at the editors they’ve lost. They’re all gone. Blame it on poor editorial judgment, or corporate mismanagement, or the failure to transition to digital, or the ridiculous moves of their television division, but don’t blame me. I would have been happy to just go quietly away from such a vulgar operation, but I am offended at being made a scapegoat for their spectacular incompetence. Gentlemen? I don’t think so.