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| From | JIMSOULS@aol.com |
| Subject | Sad news about No Depression |
| Date | Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:41:30 EST |
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Just received this. Sad news indeed.
Jim McGuinness
SEATTLE, WA - No Depression, the bimonthly magazine covering a broad range
of American roots music since 1995, will bring to an end its print publication
with its 75th issue in May-June 2008.
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.
The magazine’s March-April issue, currently en route to subscribers and
stores, includes the following note from publishers Grant Alden, Peter Blackstock
and Kyla Fairchild as its Page 2 “Hello Stranger†column:
Dear Friends:
Barring the intercession of unknown angels, you hold in your hands the
next-to-the-last edition of No Depression we will publish. It is difficult even to
type those words, so please know that we have not come lightly to this
decision.
In the thirteen years since we began plotting and publishing No Depression,
we have taken pride not only in the quality of the work we were able to
offer our readers, but in the way we insisted upon doing business. We have never
inflated our numbers; we have always paid our bills (and, especially, our
freelancers) on time. And we have always tried our best to tell the truth.
First things, then: If you have a subscription to ND, please know that we
will do our very best to take care of you. We will be negotiating with a
handful of magazines who may be interested in fulfilling your subscription. That
is the best we can do under the circumstances.
Those circumstances are both complicated and painfully simple. The simple
answer is that advertising revenue in this issue is 64% of what it was for our
March- April issue just two years ago. We expect that number to continue to
decline.
The longer answer involves not simply the well-documented and industry wide
reduction in print advertising, but the precipitous fall of the music
industry. As a niche publication, ND is well insulated from reductions in, say, GM’
s print advertising budget; our size meant they weren’t going to buy space in
our pages, regardless.
On the other hand, because we’re a niche title we are dependent upon
advertisers who have a specific reason to reach our audience. That is: record
labels. We, like many of our friends and competitors, are dependent upon
advertising from the community we serve.
That community is, as they say, in transition. In this evolving downloadable
world, what a record label is and does is all up to question. What is
irrefutable is that their advertising budgets are drastically reduced, for reasons
we well understand. It seems clear at this point that whatever businesses
evolve to replace (or transform) record labels will have much less need to
advertise in print.
The decline of brick and mortar music retail means we have fewer newsstands
on which to sell our magazine, and small labels have fewer venues that might
embrace and hand-sell their music. Ditto for independent bookstores. Paper
manufacturers have consolidated and begun closing mills to cut production; we’
ve been told to expect three price increases in 2008. Last year there was a
shift in postal regulations, written by and for big publishers, which shifted
costs down to smaller publishers whose economies of scale are unable to take
advantage of advanced sorting techniques.
Then there’s the economy…
The cumulative toll of those forces makes it increasingly difficult for all
small magazines to survive. Whatever the potentials of the web, it cannot be
good for our democracy to see independent voices further marginalized. But
that’s what’s happening. The big money on the web is being made, not
surprisingly, primarily by big businesses.
ND has never been a big business. It was started with a $2,000 loan from
Peter’s savings account (the only monetary investment ever provided, or sought
by, the magazine). We have five more or less full-time employees, including we
three who own the magazine. We have always worked from spare bedrooms and
drawn what seemed modest salaries.
What makes this especially painful and particularly frustrating is that our
readership has not significantly declined, our newsstand sell-through remains
among the best in our portion of the industry, and our passion for and
pleasure in the music has in no way diminished. We still have shelves full of
first-rate music we’d love to tell you about.
And we have taken great pride in being one of the last bastions of the
long-form article, despite the received wisdom throughout publishing that shorter
is better. We were particularly gratified to be nominated for our third Utne
award last year.
Our cards are now on the table.
Though we will do this at greater length next issue, we should like
particularly to thank the advertisers who have stuck with us these many years; the
writers, illustrators, and photographers who have worked for far less than they’
re worth; and our readers: You.
Thank you all. It has been our great joy to serve you.
GRANT ALDEN
PETER BLACKSTOCK
KYLA FAIRCHILD
**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.
(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/
2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
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