GQ’s top editor Will Welch will leave the publication for a new job working with musician Pharrell Williams, the latest in a string of departures atop Condé Nast publications this past year.
Welch has led the U.S. edition of GQ since 2018 and has been global editorial director since 2020. He took over managing music publication Pitchfork in 2024, as it was folded into GQ. Welch’s last day is Feb. 15.
“The positioning of the GQ brand in global culture has never been stronger, and I’m proud of everything that this intensely hardworking and creative team has achieved through our editions all around the world,” Welch told staffers in a memo on Tuesday. “I will forever be proud of the risks we have taken together, the unlikely stories we have told, and the innovations we have forged in an industry that demands fearlessness and change.”
“I always say that GQ is nothing more than the sum total of the big ideas and hard work of the people who make it – the collective force of all of you,” he added. “I’m forever grateful—to Anna, and to each of you—for your trust.”
Welch elaborated more on Instagram, thanking his teams at GQ and Pitchfork and various Condé Nast executives.
“The Newhouse family, Roger Lynch, Stan Duncan, and, of course, THEE boss, mentor and ultimate support superstructure, Anna Wintour,” Welch wrote on Instagram.
The publication did not immediately comment on who would replace Welch.
Welch started at the magazine in 2007 as an associate editor, cycling through various roles before his appointment as its top editor in 2018. He championed the concept of “new masculinity” throughout his tenure, allowing its largely male audience to discover new ways of presenting themselves through fashion.
“We’re not saying, ‘Men of America, dress in a gender-neutral way,’ or ‘Wear women’s clothes,’” he told the New York Times in 2022. “Instead, we’re going to show different forms of self-expression, almost like a mood board, and let you find yourself in it.”
The departure leaves a vacuum at both Condé Nast’s preeminent men’s magazine and its music publication Pitchfork, the latest in a series of executive changes at the publishing titan.
Wintour stepped down from her role as head of U.S. Vogue last year and promoted Chloe Malle to lead the fashion magazine, though still oversees nearly all Condé Nast titles in her role as Condé Nast’s chief content officer and as Vogue’s global editorial director. Wintour protege Mark Guiducci replaced Radhika Jones last June as Vanity Fair’s inaugural global editorial director.
In November, the company folded Teen Vogue into Vogue, leading to several layoffs. That move also sparked a confrontation with Duncan, the chief people officer, and resulted in the firing of four employees.
Welch said on Instagram that he felt “a wild mix of emotions” in leaving GQ. But, he added, “change is good.”
