About Robb Report China

Robb Report China

Robb Report China is the Chinese edition of Robb Report, the American luxury lifestyle magazine founded in 1976. Published in Beijing under licence by the Trends Media Group, the monthly magazine addresses China's high-net-worth readers with coverage of luxury cars, yachts, private aviation, watches, property, travel and collecting, and it presents local editions of the brand's well-known Best of the Best selections. Launched in October 2007, the Chinese edition was one of the earlier international editions of the brand and became its window on what grew into one of the world's largest markets for luxury goods and services.

The parent brand: Robb Report since 1976

Robb Report began in unusual fashion. It was founded in 1976 by Robert L. "Rusty" White, originally under the title Twentieth Century Confederates, as a newsletter through which he offered his personal collection of Civil War memorabilia and Rolls-Royce automobiles. White distributed the newsletter to members of the Rolls-Royce Owners Club as mimeographed loose-leaf pages, supplying paying subscribers with a suede three-ring binder to keep them in. The publication matured into an advertorial — one of the first of its kind — blending advertising and editorial for an affluent clientele, promoted through advertisements in Architectural Digest. Volume 1, issue 1 of Robb Report as a magazine reached newsstands in 1976, devoted to advertisements for new and vintage Rolls-Royces; over four decades it evolved into a widely circulated luxury lifestyle publication. The brand was sold in 2002 to CurtCo Media, which was renamed CurtCo Robb Media, for a reported 150 million US dollars; in 2014 it was acquired by the private equity firm Rockbridge, and in 2017 Rockbridge created a joint venture bringing Robb Report into Penske Media Corporation. Through these changes the editorial formula stayed constant: authoritative, expert coverage of the finest products and experiences, summed up in the brand's claim to be the leading voice in global luxury.

Launch in China, October 2007

The Chinese edition's launch date is recorded in the brand's international media materials as October 2007. It arrived at a moment when China's wealthy population was expanding quickly and international luxury brands were building their mainland presence. The edition was published in cooperation with a local partner — in China, the Trends Media Group, the Beijing-based publisher behind a stable of fashion and lifestyle titles — and its distribution reached the mainland as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau in the brand's wider regional arrangements. From the beginning, the Chinese edition positioned itself differently from an ordinary newsstand magazine: it pioneered in China a subscription-by-invitation model, under which the magazine was distributed to private readers and through partners including private banks, premium brands, luxury clubs and business schools. International media kits of the early 2010s listed the Chinese edition's circulation at 152,880 with twelve issues a year; a later international presentation listed a much larger Chinese circulation figure of 848,000, reflecting the title's claimed growth with the market, though such figures were publisher-reported rather than independently audited.

A private adviser to the ultra-wealthy

Robb Report China's own media materials described its role in distinctive terms: it was a private adviser to China's ultra-wealthy class and a guidebook for those exploring the finest things in life. Its content offered purchasing advice and lifestyle articles for elite Chinese consumers, with special features on the connoisseur lifestyle and a platform on which wealthy individuals could share their own stories. The subject coverage followed the global Robb Report pattern — automobiles, aircraft and yachts under the brand's wheels, wings and water formula; watches and jewellery; fine dining and spirits; travel and hotels; homes, art and design; and money and property. What made the Chinese edition distinct was its insider's view of luxury products and services both domestic and international, presented for readers in one of the world's most important luxury markets. With China at the time recently named the world's largest market for art and antiques, the edition's coverage of collecting and the art market formed a natural part of its pages.

Best of the Best in China

The signature franchise of the Robb Report brand is Best of the Best, its annual selection of the outstanding products, services and experiences in each luxury category. The Chinese edition has hosted local editions of these selections, adapting the global format to Chinese products, hotels, restaurants, cars and services. The 2014 media materials for the Chinese edition, marking its seventh anniversary year, anticipated the release of its Best of the Best choices for Chinese readers. The franchise matters because it converts the magazine's editorial authority into a recognisable seal: for luxury brands operating in China, inclusion in such selections offered access to a readership that ordinary advertising could not easily reach, while for readers it provided a curated shortlist in categories — from watches to resorts — where choice had expanded bewilderingly fast. The award-and-selection format also gave the Chinese edition an events and partnerships dimension beyond the printed page.

The Trends Media Group context

In China the title has been published under licence by the Trends Media Group, the Beijing media group whose portfolio has included Chinese editions of several international fashion and lifestyle brands. The licensing model was the standard route by which international magazines operated in mainland China: a local publisher with the necessary publishing licences, distribution networks and advertising sales operations produced the edition under the brand owner's standards, combining translated and international material with locally commissioned content. For Robb Report, the arrangement placed the luxury title alongside the group's fashion magazines, giving it access to the same advertiser base of international luxury houses building their China businesses in the 2000s and 2010s. The Chinese edition is distinct from Robb Report Hong Kong, a later addition to the brand's international network published separately for the Hong Kong market, whose RR1 membership events and Best of the Best print annuals are run from Hong Kong.

Readers and distribution

Everything about the Chinese edition's operation was designed around controlled reach rather than mass circulation. The invitation-subscription model meant the magazine went to named, qualified readers; additional distribution flowed through the places where China's wealthy gathered and transacted — private banking suites, luxury brand boutiques and clubs, business schools and premium partners. That model answered a specific advertiser problem in China: luxury brands wanted to reach genuine high-net-worth consumers in a vast country where wealth was dispersed across many cities, and a magazine that could certify its readers' status was valuable even at modest print numbers. The brand's materials emphasised that the Chinese edition reached some of the wealthiest regions of the country and continued to attract a rapidly growing super-affluent community with eclectic and refined tastes — language aimed squarely at international luxury advertisers allocating China budgets.

The global network around the edition

Robb Report China belongs to one of the largest international networks in luxury publishing. At its fortieth anniversary in 2016, the brand counted 17 international editions worldwide; later media materials put the network at 19 editions in 12 languages, with editions in markets including Russia, India, Brazil, Arabia, Turkey, Spain, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Mexico, Korea and Germany at various times. The Chinese edition thus appeared within a system in which content, brand standards and franchises such as Best of the Best circulated internationally, while each edition localised its selections and features. For Chinese readers the network offered a window on global luxury; for the brand it offered a presence in the market that its own materials described as one of the world's largest and most sophisticated for luxury goods and services. The parent brand has continued to extend into membership and experiences through RR1, the private club that began as the Robb Report Club in 2010, though the club's activities have been centred on the United States and, in Asia, on the Hong Kong edition.

Position in China's luxury media

Robb Report China's significance lies in its timing and its model. It launched in 2007, early in the great expansion of Chinese luxury consumption, and it imported a proposition that Chinese publishing had not previously had in the same form: a magazine whose entire identity was connoisseurship across every luxury category at once, addressed to readers defined by wealth rather than by interest in a single field such as cars or watches. Its invitation-only distribution anticipated the direction of Chinese luxury media generally, toward verified affluent audiences, private events and membership relationships. As a Chinese edition of a brand that began as a mimeographed newsletter for Rolls-Royce owners in 1976, it also illustrates how completely the centre of gravity of the global luxury market shifted eastward in the early twenty-first century — and how international magazine brands reorganised themselves, through licensing partners such as Trends, to follow it.