When GQ Middle East launches in September, it will be under the leadership of a relatively young editor in chief with an international bent.
ITP Media Group, the Dubai company that’s launching GQ through a licensing agreement with Condé Nast parent Advance Media, has tapped Adam Baidawi as editor in chief for the Middle East version of the men’s fashion and culture magazine, set to launch in September. This edition makes the 21st for GQ and Baidawi, at 28 years old, the brand’s youngest editor in chief. The title publishes worldwide in countries including the U.K., Taiwan, Thailand, Russia and China.
Baidawi has been writing and contributing to numerous international outlets since 2011, most recently as a correspondent for The New York Times in Australia and also as a writer and photographer for GQ Australia, with his work showing up in British GQ, as well. His articles have so far focused on style and celebrity and political profiles, but Baidawi has also written pieces on culture, technology and immigration, among other topics, from places like Colombia, North Korea, the U.S. and Iraq. Other outlets he’s worked for include Mr Porter, CNN, Vanity Fair Italia and Esquire U.K. Although London-based and raised in Australia, Biadawi was born in Abu Dhabi.
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Being bilingual will surely come in very useful, as the GQ Middle East website will be available in Arabic and English. Baidawi will also oversee a monthly print edition.
Having contributed to international editions of GQ for about seven years, Baidawi said the title has been an “integral part” of his life and that “it’s a huge honor to launch the brand into the region where I was born.”
He added that he wants the magazine to be “relentlessly smart and stylish” but “something that will start and support important conversations in the region.”
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