The All-New STYLUS.

By the way, just in case - I do apologise for repeating this rumour if it is either wrong or supposed to be secret until some later date. I hope this hasn't caused any problems anywhere, hadn't thought about that when I asked if anyone knew anything on August 31st. I did say that it could be a hoax and as far as I know it might still be, but you know, to whom it may concern: sorry. :-/

http://www.observer.com/2007/stylus-magazine-respected-online-music-publication-will-fold-after-halloween

Stylus Magazine, Respected Online Music Publication, Will Fold After Halloween
by Leon Neyfakh

Published: October 26, 2007

Tags: Media, Pitchfork Media, Stylus Magazine

StylusMagazine.com, a portal for fans of experimental and independent music, will cease publication at the end of the month after almost five years. While never quite as widely read or immediately influential as Pitchforkmedia.com, Stylus built a name for itself among music specialists interested in rigorous, and often personal, criticism of little known artists, as well as Top 40 singles. (In recent years the site also expanded its coverage to include film.) In an e-mail, Stylus editor Todd Burns—who was good enough to publish a few of this reporter's music reviews many years ago—said there was no immediate impetus behind his decision to the end the site.

"I just got off the subway one day and said, 'I don't want to do this anymore,'" he said.

Scott Plagenhoef, who was a top editor writer at Stylus before becoming the managing editor of Pitchfork, said the site would be dearly missed.

"Todd has done an exemplary job of providing an outlet for content that is writer-friendly and allows them to stretch out and explore ideas," Mr. Plagenhoef said.

"One disappointing thing about it is that there aren't very many music magazines anymore," he said. "Even online, since having a blog has simply been a matter of hosting a song and then saying, 'hey, here it is.' That's been pretty much the end of the conversation in a lot of places about music."

Mr. Plagenhoef said he has been talking to Mr. Burns about Stylus writers who might now find a home at Pitchfork. "We've consulted with Todd and talked about certain writers who are a good fit, and we're in the process of possibly bringing on board a few people," he said.

Mr. Plagenhoef said Pitchfork has already hired Mike Powell, who wrote regularly about music for Stylus and served as an associate editor.

Stylus will publish its last reviews this week, and close out on Halloween with a "Greatest Hits"-style retrospective.

r.i.p.

I'm really sorry to read this. This line is especially true:

One disappointing thing about it is that there aren't very many music magazines anymore," he said. "Even online, since having a blog has simply been a matter of hosting a song and then saying, 'hey, here it is.' That's been pretty much the end of the conversation in a lot of places about music.

Good filters are as sorely needed now as ever, and Stylus was one of the best. I'm very sorry to see it go.

What I don't understand is, if he's simply not interested in running the site anymore, why not try to find somebody who is?

The all-new Stylus, run by the Reverend!

Haha, no thanks.

This news is heartbreaking. :(

Haha, no thanks.

Why not? Storm the Bastille.

r.i.p. anticipating hit job reviews by dom of hyped nme bands.

but for real, i'm sad about this. in some respects, stylus, esp. w/r/t the features, had some of the best, or at least the most original, music writing around, print or online. will be missed, but it's cool that dudes are migrating over to pfork, at least.

Todd Burns doesn't care about indie people!!

That's a bummer. Stylus was my favorite of all of 'em. They had the most consistent writers. I hope they keep an archive online for a while.

yeah this is bad. pitchfork, while you're at it feel free to steal stylus' design template. every bit of it. please. alfred soto where else do you write?

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/images/journal-logos/rsm/jms.gif

There really is no other site out there that had as much good pop criticism in one place . . . I mean, Pitchfork is great, but they have one feature a day, and a lot of the time it's a Guest List or an interview or something. I'm going to miss waking up and opening up my RSS reader and having all those great essays and other features sitting right there.

Also, whatever you do, Nick Southall please keep writing. Your shit is half the reason Stylus is/was great.

yeah him too def. does he post here?

Yeah he does.

Nick Southall = Scik Mouthy

Aw i'm gonna miss the singles jukebox the most. I always thought Stylus wrote about pop and dance better than they ever did about indie.

And, of course, Scraping the Barrel < / selfish self-interest >

lol if only for the rare chance of encountering an extremely grumpy Ned.

xp naturally! must say i prefer your reviews 'in stereo' :). i bet you talk faster than you type so it's not an inapt comparison.

I will miss the extraordinarily vague musings of Martin Skidmore.

stylus rip

srsly will miss

hugs to scik mouthy

I ran into Todd on the subway once, hopefully that wasn't the same day he said "fuck it."

I haven't read it as much lately (oooh did I hate the grading system), and if Todd has stuff he'd rather do I respect that, but this still kinda bums me out. RIP!

I have a very fond memory of doing drunken karaoke with a bunch of Stylus gents two years agoish. Good times!

That's a bummer. Stylus was my favorite of all of 'em. They had the most consistent writers. I hope they keep an archive online for a while.

-- Fastnbulbous, Saturday, 27 October 2007 04:06 (3 hours ago) Link

yeah, anyone have any idea if there are plans to at least make sure the domain and archive stay up for the foreseeable future? i'd hate for all that stuff to disappear (at least party selfishly, for my own reviews).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_8031.jpg

I hear Nick Southall will be soon writing for "Cat Fanciers & Headphone Nerds Weekly" so it isn't a total loss.

It's on the frontpage of the site now, so I'll stop ignoring it. Yes, we're closing. Yes, Todd's had enough. No, I don't blame him.

:-(

(I hope this rumor wasn't the way you found out)

No; Todd told us a while ago. We're not Tottenham.

Phew. Your "I'm still writing" got me worried that they hadn't told you yet.

Haha, no; it's my "I'm not lying but I'm not telling you the whole story either" get out clause. I am still writing; I've got a bundle of things to finish for the last few days of the site.

Shit, I've been reading almost from the beginning, after doing a random search for Autechre reviews, as was my wont back in the day, and coming across this. rip.

I still don't get why somebody else couldn't take it over. It seems weird that one guy deciding one afternoon that he just couldn't be bothered with this would just fold the whole thing up.

Thanks for the kind words. Nick couldn't have said it better. For my part, I still got a bunch of copy to edit as well as a couple of things to write for the site, so I'm too busy to think of impending doom. I've been writing for other publications for a long time now, so if anyone wants to know where to find me please drop me a line.

The old Stylus UK Singles Jukebox was my first music journalism gig, so I have a lot to thank it for. Great site, very sorry to see it go... but I can quite imagine why Todd decided he had enough. You can't do something that staggeringly work-intensive and minimally profitable for ever and ever, can you?

It's very shitty. I always really enjoyed this great magazine. Some really good reviews and interesting articles. Good its ending on a high though: I think the recent piece on lovely music ltd. might be one of my favourite pieces of music writing ever. Best of luck to all of the great writers there, particularly those that post here.

I say with no hesitation that it was my favorite music publication, online or print, for the last five years. It was an honor writing there and it will be sorely missed.

this sucks.

Yonks ago they asked me to write about my favourite record. (Two and a half guesses which one I wanted to write about.) I never did. Well, I started but then I realized I was just a crappy writer and that my writings wouldn't be good enough for'em. What a great site. :-(

I really loved the "On Second Thought" column.

With a million blogs talking endlessly about every new release these days, it was really nice for a change to have someone looking critically at older albums that everyone either takes for granted or has forgotten about (which is also the appeal of ILM for me I suppose).

yeah, that aspect will really be missed.

The thing I will miss most is the effort taken to highlight things outside of the general "indie rock and things that people who like indie rock like" discourse. I don't see any similar sites out there with country columns or latin music reviewers

I still don't get why somebody else couldn't take it over. It seems weird that one guy deciding one afternoon that he just couldn't be bothered with this would just fold the whole thing up.

I'd like to hear about it too- not necessarily because it's wrong, there are several good reasons why this might happen. But I'm intrigued.

btw I didn't read Stylus (hardly read or even do any music writing these days) but am sorry to see it go from what I gather here. The Ashley piece is sweet.

With a million blogs talking endlessly about every new release these days, it was really nice for a change to have someone looking critically at older albums that everyone either takes for granted or has forgotten about

Yeah, ulitmately those essays are the ones I'll most miss writing.

I still don't get why somebody else couldn't take it over. It seems weird that one guy deciding one afternoon that he just couldn't be bothered with this would just fold the whole thing up.

^echoed

I've been far too flippant so far so to speak seriously -- I'd contributed pieces here and there almost on a whim to Stylus but it was here on ILM where the whole concept of Scraping the Barrel (initially called Shoveling the Shit, but you can't have everything) came up in an exchange between Todd, a couple of other Stylus bods and myself when lots of bad promo crud was talked about and I said if they wanted to send it to me to write about I'd happily rant. Simple as that and it was a great result on a variety of levels -- I got to step out of the far more restrained pose I necessarily have on the AMG, I did discover some stuff I actually quite enjoyed and heard enough of other idiocy not merely to give grist to the writing mill but to help further clarify whatever my random aesthetic is. What you dislike is as important as what you like, after all.

Also, it prompted some of the only hate mail for my reviewing I've ever received (all of it incredibly defensive and amusing), while, of all people, Momus was once irritated by my use of hyperbole when I was trashing something. Can't go wrong there.