Magnolol, a hydroxylated biphenol compound isolated from the bark of Magnolia officinalis, has been shown to exhibit anti-proliferative effect in various cancer cells, including skin cancer cells. Methoxylation of magnolol appears to improve its anti-inflammatory activity, yet the effect of this modification on the agent's antitumor activity remains unknown. In this work, we report that 2-O-methylmagnolol (MM1) displays improved antitumor activity against skin cancer cells compared to magnolol both in vitro and in vivo. The increased antitumor activity of MM1 appears to correlate with its increased ability to induce apoptosis. DNA microarray and network pathway analyses suggest that MM1 affects certain key factors involved in regulating apoptosis and programmed cell death. Interestingly, the level of the long non-coding (lnc) RNA of growth arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) was increased in MM1-treated cells, and inhibition of lncRNA GAS5 inhibited MM1-induced apoptosis. Conversely, overexpression of lncRNA GAS5 inhibited cell proliferation and promoted cell apoptosis in skin cancer cells. The expression of lncRNA GAS5 in the skin cancer tissues was found to be lower than that in the adjacent normal tissues in a majority of patients. Taken together, our findings suggest that MM1 has improved antitumor activity in skin cancer cells, and that this is due, at least in part, to the upregulation of lncRNA GAS5 and the enhancement of apoptosis.