Hong Kong provides a laboratory for a new way to fund journalism - upmarket retail

Former Wallpaper editor Tyler Brule might have scored again with another magazine sensation called Monocle, but his real goal is to go into global retail. Teaming with Lane Crawford's home store, they've created a Monocle pop-up store (although they prefer the term seasonal shop). It offers specially designed limited-edition items from the likes of Comme des Garcons, Porter and Blackberry, plus CDs, posters and even bicycles. At the Thursday opening, Brule justified his products' premium mark-up as a way to subsidise his magazine's global expansion. This includes setting up in May a Hong Kong bureau for Monocle - and eventually a permanent shop, too.

'It's interesting for us to do retail,' Brule said. 'Because retail makes money, it enables us to have journalists here. It's almost the media version of the old Hong Kong Chinese shop - with the shop downstairs and the family living upstairs. The journalists will be in the back room and the store in front.'

A stand-alone retail store in the Star Street area is in the works for the global affairs magazine, which only started in 2007, yet it's already one of the must-reads of the international cognoscenti. 'I don't think any other international media outlets are doing that. Most are just cutting back and closing, and what I think is really exciting is Hong Kong becomes a lab for us. If it works here then we'll do it in a couple of other markets like Sao Paulo.' The Monocle seasonal shop is in Lane Crawford's home store until May 23.