Rolling Stone, the iconic music, politics and culture magazine, is 42 years old and is as much a part of rock royalty as the legendary stars that have graced its pages. Still shooting from the hip and delivering some of the best content and covers in the business, the magazine has rolled out to 14 countries, with a readership of over 15 million and shows no sign of settling down, writes Karen Taylor.

Jann Wenner, the founder, editor, publisher and owner of Rolling Stone, launched the first issue in the US on 9 November 1967, with the initial charter of “covering rock and roll music with intelligence and respect”. “But even then,” says Wenner in his book on the complete collection of Rolling Stone Covers, “we knew the fervour sweeping our generation encompassed more than just music.” And so the magazine gradually broadened to include everything the music touched – from politics, movies, television and video games, to the internet, sports and crime. Says Wenner: “In hindsight, it was prescient of us to feature John Lennon on the first cover. That one image speaks volumes about the marriage of music and movies and politics that came to define Rolling Stone.”

Other covers of John Lennon were equally significant – like the first nude of John and his wife Yoko, and the legendary cover that was shot on polaroid by Annie Leibovitz, the famous Rolling Stone staff photographer, just hours before Lennon was assassinated outside his home in New York. There have been countless other memorable covers (see next page), and they have undoubtedly helped hone the Rolling Stone brand. But equally important have been the words on the page, which continue to make opinion-makers sit up and take notice. Only recently, UK newspaper The Sunday Times acknowledged Rolling Stone in one of its editorials, writing: “It has taken the ageingly hip Rolling Stone magazine to sum up [merchant bank] Goldman Sachs. It called it a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” It’s a playful compliment that Rolling Stone takes in its stride.

Says executive editor Jason Fine: “What, the squid quote again? It’s appearing everywhere. What the journalist Matt Taibbi did was tackle a really difficult subject, one that a lot of people don’t really understand. But the crisis was so deep and wide that people realised that someone was screwing with them, they just didn’t know who and didn’t know how. Matt has a lot of attitude but he demonstrates that he has incredible grasp of his subject. He told a vivid, compelling story – that’s what we set out to do here. It’s a combination of attitude and rigorous reporting.”

There is, naturally, huge personal satisfaction in creating ground-breaking copy and images which reflect the zeitgeist of the times. Hence the reason Wenner is likely to have clutched this precocious protégé to his bosom for over 40 years. But, as we all know, magazines, like the icons they feature, need to make money. One of the turning points for Rolling Stone from a financial perspective was the Perception/Reality advertising campaign (see next page) in the early 1980s. The campaign was designed to educate Madison Avenue that Rolling Stone was not just read by hippies, but by mainstream America. It included a series of images opposite one another, one being the “Perception” of Rolling Stone’s readership and the other being “Reality”. One set of images included under the word “Perception” a photo of a Volkswagen camper van painted in psychedelic colours with peace stickers, and on the opposite page under the word “Reality” was a sporty looking Ford Mustang driven by a young, relatively clean-cut man. The campaign was extremely successful and Rolling Stone began to attract a much wider base of advertisers.

The campaign came hot on the heels of Rolling Stone’s greatest era – the seventies. It was in these glory days that the infamous journalist Hunter S. Thompson, coined the phrase Gonzo journalism, and PJ O’Rourke started writing for the magazine. “The seventies were an exceptional era for Rolling Stone,” agreed Fine. “It was a period which transformed a small idea into a national magazine. It was a time that created some amazing journalists – people with a rock and roll attitude adapting to the world around them.”

Hunter S. Thompson was one of the magazine’s most renowned contributors, and like many famous faces before him, made it to the cover following his death in February 2005. Other legends not so close to home gave the magazine an early lesson in publishing – death sells. “When Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix died within weeks of each other, our staff placed simple classic portraits on the cover, with type stating just the artist’s name and dates of birth and death. That became a form of tribute that we’ve followed ever since,” says Wenner.

Most recently, Michael Jackson’s untimely death was a real test of the magazine’s adaptability. Said Maureen Lamberti, the brand’s international licensing director: “As Jackson’s passing came on the heels of a double issue for us (a long-overdue vacation week in the magazine world) the staff pulled together to produce a gorgeous 100-page standalone issue in less than seven days. This standalone special was so successful for us that we have turned it into a hardcover book with HarperCollins.”

The magazine has won many awards, touching taboo and controversial subjects like, in 1986, the then-untouchable topic of AIDS. In 2004, Rolling Stone showcased a modern take on its anti-war reputation, embedding journalist Evan Wright with the US Marine Corps during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This was a bit of a departure from the magazine’s roots in peace and love. Wright’s efforts were awarded a National Magazine Award for reporting the following year, and served as the basis for the best-selling book and the HBO mini-series “Generation Kill”. Although not exactly a mid-life crisis, Rolling Stone did have a middle-youth moment in the early 2000s, when it “experimented with a flashier look and a style influenced by a new breed of British magazines”. But, according to Wenner, even in that period the covers that worked best looked traditional Rolling Stone – like the stark black and white portrait of an aged Johnny Cash and the shot of Bruce Springsteen standing in a vast green field, epitomising his American values.

By 2004, Rolling Stone realised that it wanted to go back to its own roots, regardless of newsstand sales. In an effort to shift the magazine into more topical waters, it proceeded with a series of political covers that created a “new energy and purpose”. “It was almost a kind of renewal,” said Wenner.

Today, Rolling Stone is still looking for subjects who are authentic and honest, iconic or hot, people who stand for something. “In the nineties we felt comfortable with the direction our nation was going, so we could go out there and have some fun. Now, though, the stakes are high and we have a lot of serious things to say,” said Wenner.

However, that is not to say that the staffers are devoid of fun. “It’s always been the way at the Rolling Stone to work hard and play hard,” says Fine. “A lot of the time we are working until 11pm and going to a club until 2am. We cover music and so we go to a lot of concerts and clubs. But this is a magazine where people stay a long time. I’ve been here 13 years, for example.” The staff, 20 editorial and 10 on the design and photography side, range in age and experience with Wenner still very much hands on, overseeing things and reading everything. It’s a good mix, and one that is reflected in the breadth and eclectic style of the magazine.

Rolling all over the world

Rolling Stone’s international expansion got off to a rocky start in 1969 when its first international launch in the UK folded after a short while. However, just three years later the magazine launched in Australia, and is still publishing there today.

The magazine now has 14 licensed/international editions in 10 languages:

Australia (1972), Germany (1994), Argentina (1998), Spain (1999), France (2002), Mexico (2002), Italy (2003), Russia (2004), Indonesia (2005), Chile (2006), Brazil (2006), Japan (2007), India (2008) and Bulgaria (2009).

“The primary difference between our market and our international markets is that we are a subscriptions-driven title in the USA and all of our international editions are single copy sales-driven,” says Lamberti. “Depending on the market, some are more advertising revenue-driven and some are more circulation revenue-driven.” As far as content is concerned, Rolling Stone travels well. Says Lamberti: “Ultimately, the focus of Rolling Stone transcends boundaries. Our coverage is dedicated to what is current and relevant and we have chronicled the pop culture history for 42 years. This translates very well for our international licensed editions, since they are each able to cover what is relevant in their markets, but also derive content from our edition, which covers international musicians, actors, comedians, politicians, etc. In addition to using about 40-50 per cent of our home content, our licensed editions also produce local material and many of our editions share content amongst one another. The end product for the brand is that we have a distinct global brand identity that is familiar to readers and advertisers alike.” In addition to using current content, many editions have found that their readers love to browse articles from the archives – in most cases from issues from the 60s and 70s.

As far as the recession is concerned, Lamberti says that expansion plans have been maintained. “Even though we have all faced difficult times since last year, we moved forward with our launch of Rolling Stone Bulgaria in November and are still planning at least two launches next year. Our global readership for all of our editions is very strong and is growing.” Books and special interest publications called book-a-lines are another lucrative brand extension for Rolling Stone, with many published over the years.

The web is also proving to be an interesting domain for the magazine, and one which is set for a relaunch. Having licensed the backend of its website operations externally since 1997, Rolling Stone will bring it back in-house in 2010. “Our focus for the brand has been the print edition, but we are now focused on entering the digital world in the proper fashion and have recently hired someone to oversee the online operations and refocus our efforts online. We have over 5.6 million unique visitors a month to RS.com and approximately 35 per cent of our traffic is outside of the USA,” say Lamberti.

Charging for online content is currently under review and will be determined for the relaunch. The archives, understandably, are a natural contender for this. In keeping with the fluidity of the magazine, the international editions are given a lot of freedom. “We don’t have strict guidelines in place,” says Lamberti. “We are flexible depending on what is working in each market. Of course, we need to make certain that the brand stays on track and is in line with our overall editorial mission, but there is leniency when it comes to how much USA content has to appear in the local editions. “We have found that our most successful licensees are those that are able to create local covers and eventually have 40-50 per cent of the content in their local edition derived from the USA edition with the rest locally produced. We trust them to find their mix, but work together as a team to be able to reach those goals.”

MILESTONES

• Mick Jagger, of the Rolling Stones band, holds the record for being on the cover the most – 27 times
• Matt Groening, The Simpsons cartoonist, has produced several covers for Rolling Stone
• Annie Leibovitz, the rock-photographer, joined the magazine in 1970, having pitched up at the offices with her portfolio as an unknown, 20-year-old art student.
• Rolling Stone pioneered the trend of nude “star” covers with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s in November 1968
•  After Michael Jackson’s death, a 100 page standalone issue of the magazine was produced in less than a week