From The LA Times, via southcoasttoday.com (link):
Rolling Stone has hit a wall.
The rock-and-roll publication entered the Chinese market early this month with a huge splash, including billboard advertisements, a 125,000-copy roll-out and free “Rolling Stone” hats with each copy. On yesterday, regulators said they were shutting it down after one issue.
Authorities have been cracking down on the media, with the editor of Beijing News sacked in December and the well-regarded weekly supplement Freezing Point closed in January, subsequently reopened with a new, and presumably more cooperative, editor.
Articles in the first Chinese edition of Rolling Stone about a rock star associated with the Tiananmen protests and a blogger who wrote about her sex life pushed the limits of what is permissible. But the case appears to be more about a clash between the magazine’s brash business strategy and regulators keen to show who is boss.