Is SPIN really circling the drain?

SOLD.

So they paid $850,000 for the right to try to recoup $5 million in standing debt. E.g. "We can make it work." There hasn't been a full ad in SPIN in over a year - everything is either a co-brand tie-in or a huge discount. And I think I saw maybe three, four ads in that span that weren't explicitly music-related. Once upon a time SPIN had ads for clothes, food and movies. My question is, why do you throw the editorial staff in the blender when it's so clear that ad sales killed the mag?

Andy Pemberton, 2006: "I think the world could use a younger version of Rolling Stone."

But but but I said that already upthread! (It is nice to see you agreeing with me though. ;-) )

and all the articles would be 6,000 word travelogues with tons of photos. scott would do the 'scott page', which he could fill with whatever he wanted, and his baby rufus would do the DJ chart every month. jess would have a drum'n'bass column, and woebot would have a ten-page full-color laminated gatefold pullout every month to fill with whatever his heart desired. i would write the "berlin page" every issue, with lots of goofy photos of 6 am clubbing action. simon r. would have a column to enthuse about his favorite early ardkore records. matos would do a cdr-go column every month. and every issue would come with a mix-CD curated by optimo, encased in an edible sleeve printed on blotter.

BTW phil, check yr email...

(mark s will write the style guide, with special entries for "haha," "nu-god," and "roXoR")

ahahahahahaha

I don't know why I find this so funny. Future Art Brut song title?

Help help!

when ad sales and readership is down, people don't tend to start blaming the advertising sales force. People start looking at the product that is for sale. And that product is mostly the responsibility of the editorial staff. But if you want to make the case that the editorial staff was delivering a desired product Chris, go ahead and make that case.

oh, and Happy Birthday Ned.

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I actually really like that idea! Good god it would be fun for the half an issue before we ran it into the ground.
-- Sterling Clover (s.clove...), February 19th, 2006 10:29 AM.

Thanks!

Even though I'm biased, I really do think Decibel is the best music mag being made in the U.S. But genre mags don't have to play by the same rules as normal mags. they can assume that people know a little bit about the subject and don't have to spoon feed. I still think someone could do this with a music mag aimed at a general audience. write intelligently and with a sense of humor and not play dumb. i really think people would be appreciative. spin started out that way.

http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/mudrian-albert-060228.shtml

"There's a new music magazine, Tracks, which is marketed to an older listening audience. Does this magazine affect you?
It is a totally different audience; however, we do cover album reissues. Before us, no other magazines did that. We like to maintain a wider presence, but I think that it would also be a good idea to do a Mojo-like magazine in America."

Is he really saying that Blender was the first magazine to review reissues? Why would he say that?

(second half 05 newsstand sales: rs - 129k, blender 82k, spin 52k)