Ep 73: From Ai Wei Wei to Building Generation T (Tatler) | Lee Williamson (Regional Editorial Editor, Generation T, Tatler Asia Group)

What this episode covers

Lee Williamson is the Regional Editorial Director of Generation T, Tatler Asia Group and currently oversees three of Tatler’s flagship brands: Gen.T, Front & Female and Asia’s Most Influential. He was previously the Editor at Time Out Beijing and Editor-in-Chief at That’s China and was selected as a WAN-IFRA Young Media Leaders Fellow 2020. If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to work as a foreign journalist in China, dealing with state censorship, producing “controversial” editorials and also producing media products like the Generation T list, then this is the episode for you! Highlights: 6:48 Moving to China 8:58 Working as a journalist at That’s China 11:33 “You’ll Never Be Chinese” 15:19 Censorship in China 17:26 Relaunching 18:21 Being Editor at Time Out Beijing 21:12 Publishing Ai Wei Wei’s first interview following his detainment in China 23:14 Working at Tatler 25:05 Why Gen.T? 26:21 Defining success, influence and power 27:17 What’s the point of another “list”? 29:42 Building the Gen.T community 34:48 Gaining trust 35:52 Getting people to share what they really want even after they say “I don’t really need anything” 39:05 Seeing Gen.T’s brand value increase 43:11 Deciding who gets on Gen.T 45:08 Tribes 47:21 Safeguards 48:57 Trends among Gen.T honourees 50:22 What’s in it for Gen.T? 51:09 The Crazy Smart Asia podcast 56:21 Planning for the future of Gen.T 📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/73 💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605 🪙 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sothisismywhy