NPR story...small music magazines hurting (& No Depression among them)

[DJ Golf]

No Depression will stop publishing this summer, acc. to this story.
Small music mag publishers cite decreased advertising buys from record
labels as the main cause of their struggles...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19357366

[Todd Morman]

Yeah, Menconi did a story about this a few days ago; front of the Life
section and all:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2766/story/956544.html. The web site's gonna
continue.

todd sad to say but shutting down the print version now sounds like a very
smart move on their part morman

-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene

[grady]

Hmm, and yet, from all obvious indicators, small music websites (such
as, say, Pitchfork) seem to be thriving. Perhaps it is simply the
grinding up of trees & applying words to them, and then mailing the
resulting product individually to people that is becoming obsolete?

I have to say, I was kind of surprised that No Depression decided to
simply pack it in entirely, rather than going web-only. Sure, a few
years ago "going web-only" was essentially the same as packing it in,
but I would argue that in 2008, going web-only is the only logical move
for small-circulation niche magazines.

Sure, I still subscribe to a half-dozen magazines, but I think this year
is the year that a lot of those are going to lapse without renewals.
Everybody except for the New Yorker, in fact. I get tired of not reading
them & then having to recycle them. So much easier to not-read online
magazines, and you don't have to lug anything out to the curb when
you're done.

Speaking as one of the earliest contributors to No Depression, I have
nothing but respect & admiration for Peter Blackstock (and not just
because of his seemingly bottomless collection of "Wichita Lineman"
covers). I'm sorry to see them backed into this corner, and I certainly
have a fair amount of nostalgia for the days when a lovingly-assembled
bimonthly magazine could be a magical gateway into a whole universe of
undiscovered music.

But those days were obsoleted by Teh Internets long before ND announced
it was ceasing publication. I will say that there's a certain amount of
fascination in watching one obsolete distribution medium dragged down by
its over-reliance on income from another obsolete distribution medium.

Ross

-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene

[Todd Morman]

> I was kind of surprised that No Depression decided to
> simply pack it in entirely, rather than going web-only.

Ross, Menconi wrote that "No Depression's Web site will continue at
nodepression.net, although not on the same scale as the magazine." And the
mag's letter to subscribers notes, "Plans to expand the publication's
website (www.nodepression.net) with additional content will move forward,
though it will in no way replace the print edition."

Not sure how to parse those, exactly, but it doesn't look like packing it in
entirely.

todd it's really amazing they did so much for so long morman

[grady]

Ah, interesting that the tidbit about them continuing the website was
buried 4/5ths of the way through an exceedingly long article, one whose
lede was "This week's announcement that No Depression magazine was
shutting down took most of its fans by surprise. The bi-monthly
magazine, which helped define as well as popularize alternative-country
music, will end a 13-year run with its May/June issue."

As if the magazine as an entity of words & ideas was somehow completely
& fully connected to its physical presence, and thus the continuation of
the website was so non-salient that it could safely be buried way down
near the end with the minor tidbits.

Of course, it's not too surprising once you read these sort of
pathetically cranky recent blog posts from Grant Alden:

(samples: "Three of them suggested we consider podcasting those long
pieces, with NPR's long-running "This American Life" as a kind of model.
(Here I must confess that I've not heard the show, but, perhaps, I
should go find a podcast of it!) . . . My immediate reaction is a
knee-jerk luddite response: good god, not more software to try to learn,
not more technology to embrace . . . one of my many frustrations with
the world wide tower of babel is that I can't even control what typeface
you're reading this blog in. I can't control how the text appears on
your screen except in the most crude ways (I can choose bold or italics
or what size the type is, sort of).")

http://www.nodepression.net/blogs/grant/index.html

But there's a glimmer of hope in his most recent post, wherein he says,
essentially, "fuckit, y'all seem to want us to continue online, so by
god let's look into the possibilities":
http://www.nodepression.net/blogs/grant/2008/02/all_right_then_lets_design_thi.html

Some random context about Grant Alden. He's the writer who came to the
Big Record Stardom Convention in Chapel Hill in 1992 and then wrote, in
Alternative Press,

"Is Chapel Hill the next Seattle? Not if the overheard mutterings of A&R
executives are to be believed. Not if the modest expectations of the
bands remain unchallenged. Not if the musicians stay within the comfy
confines of Chapel Hill. And especially not if what I heard is the best
Chapel Hill has to offer. To be fair, Thursday night's pop line-up at
the Cradle, headlined by Dillon Fence and Queen Sarah Saturday, was
pleasant enough . . . .

. . . . but mostly listeners were treated to fragments of great ideas
that were not, somehow, fully realized. Take Polvo, who came on just
before Superchunk Saturday night. A pair of guitars swirled through
intriguing variations on sounds originated by Sonic Youth, building to
crescendos that never quite happened. The vocalist has little stage
presence and does not sing well (nor is his "bad" singing a useful
supplement to the music), and the drummer seemed to play the entire
45-minute set at the same numbing tempo."

To be fair, he had a few nice things to say about a few bands. Heck, you
can read the whole thing here:
http://jpg.groovo.org/gpj/altpress-brsc-nov92.jpg

Ross

[grady]

Yeah, I just wrote another freaking long rambling reply to yr earlier
post about this. As of yesterday they've even retracted the "in no way
replace" language:

"But the outpouring of support and good ideas we have received -- that
and the fact that I have ended up too sick to work today -- emboldens me
to try a bit of market research in this space. We don't know what is
possible, not technologically nor financially. But we (that is, for the
most part, our long-suffering business-side partner, Kyla) are talking
with various people who seem to know what they're doing (and some who
don't) to explore a wider range of options than we had, perhaps, considered.

So let me toss this open: Y'all read this magazine. You know what we're
about. So tell us what you'd like to see the website be able to do. Keep
in mind that it has to be technically possible and we have to be able to
pay to have it done, whatever it might be. Try to forget that I'm a
known technophobe, but keep it simple so I can follow along, please."

http://www.nodepression.net/blogs/grant/2008/02/all_right_then_lets_design_thi.html

[DJ Golf]

Thing is, you can't read music magazines online while taking a dump.
I mean, I guess you could, but it would require a mechanical upgrade
to the bathroom, and then you wouldn't want to leave the laptop in
there while you take a shower.

[James Hepler]

Isn't that why Dog invented sudoku?

[grady]

Dude, I read all kinds of online stuff on my phone. In the car, at
lunch, waiting for things to happen (like for freaking late-ass shows to
start), etc.

What century do you live in, anyway? ;-)

You probably still wipe your butt with dead trees instead of electrons, too.

[rchr...@gmail.com]

> Some random context about Grant Alden. He's the writer who came to the
> Big Record Stardom Convention in Chapel Hill in 1992 and then wrote, in
> Alternative Press,
>
> "Is Chapel Hill the next Seattle? Not if the overheard mutterings of A&R
> executives are to be believed. Not if the modest expectations of the
> bands remain unchallenged. Not if the musicians stay within the comfy
> confines of Chapel Hill. And especially not if what I heard is the best
> Chapel Hill has to offer. To be fair, Thursday night's pop line-up at
> the Cradle, headlined by Dillon Fence and Queen Sarah Saturday, was
> pleasant enough . . . .
>
> . . . . but mostly listeners were treated to fragments of great ideas
> that were not, somehow, fully realized. Take Polvo, who came on just
> before Superchunk Saturday night. A pair of guitars swirled through
> intriguing variations on sounds originated by Sonic Youth, building to
> crescendos that never quite happened. The vocalist has little stage
> presence and does not sing well (nor is his "bad" singing a useful
> supplement to the music), and the drummer seemed to play the entire
> 45-minute set at the same numbing tempo."
>
> To be fair, he had a few nice things to say about a few bands. Heck, you
> can read the whole thing here:http://jpg.groovo.org/gpj/altpress-brsc-nov92.jpg
>
> Ross

So basically Grant Alden is a Luddite whose 1992 assessment of the
Chapel Hill scene was 98% correct?

RA

[Duncan Murrell]

Only if you've got one of those electronic handheld Sudoku games. I
think there's something weird about using a pencil and paper while
sitting on the can.

I've just read both of those sentences and realized I have absolutely
no way of defending them, the distinction makes no sense. And yet, I
stand by it!

Audaciously hopeful,

d

[DJ Golf]

Again, I could probably do this but it would only increase my growing
realization that I need bifocals. Plus, the picture of Jenny Lewis
that's in the Harp subscription ad every month would be really small.

Although the idea of having something to do while waiting for the late-
ass headliner to go on is very appealing. If I could telecommute
during that time then maybe I could start going out to shows on
weeknights again.

And if the TP has a static charge, does that count as electronic butt
wiping?

[grady]

Yep, pretty much. The question is what's the exact correlation between
those two facts . . .

rchr...@gmail.com wrote:

> So basically Grant Alden is a Luddite whose 1992 assessment of the
> Chapel Hill scene was 98% correct?
>
> RA

[Phil B]

One of the big differences with online sites is paying writers. Not
that this can't be done in an online situation, but generally the
"community/artist interaction" spoken of in the NPR story can look
alot like Public Relations talking to Fans. Great if you want to move
the product but say goodbye to anyone taking the time to do things
like go to the library, fact check, read books, edit, etc... When was
the last time you read a well researched piece of music journalism
sponsored completely by websources? There seem to be two roads to go
in print: Big fat glossies with lavish production values (McSweeney's-
esque, Fretboard Journal) or newsprint/zines (MRR).