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“Another hurting category was music magazines. On life support is Blender, which saw ad pages fall 30.6 percent for 2008. Rolling Stone, the granddaddy of music magazines, wasn’t far behind, with ad pages declining 23.8 percent.” But hey, Spin’s numbers are up a tick! [Folio via MBV]
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I just got the FOB issue of Blender yesterday, and I had to do a double-take before realizing it wasn’t a New Yorker or Entertainment Weekly. So thin!
This has got to be their first-ever stapled (not perfect-bound) issue, right? On the plus side, that meant purging it of subscription cards and cologne ads was a snap!
Those mags were already markedly down by the 1st quarter of last year… And Spin’s +1% now looks proportionate when you take into account that they were remarkably UP 27% at that point last year.
Surprised to hear about Arthur, though.
I figure its safe to say that RS and SPIN are probably going to make it, come what may, but all bets are off as to all the other mags out there. I’m guessing only a shrewd and lucky few will probably hang on for another year.
@Catbirdseat: Maybe. I have a much darker view on this, I have to be honest. Hands up if, like me, your worst fear is that the only print music journalism out there is kept afloat solely by the ego of one Jann S. Wenner!
@2ironic4u: Alternately: “We don’t have any money left for transcription, so how about we just make shit up.”
interns do transcription for free, c’mon!
So we shouldn’t expect a second season of “I’m From Rolling Stone”?
Boy, I hate Blender so much. Its pretty much a collection of “The White Stripes suck because Meg White can’t play drums” and “let’s pick on the Vines’ autistic singer!” jokes every month. And their Top 500 Songs Since You Were Born features Bassment Jaxx’s “Where’s Your Head At” twice (although props for “B.O.B.” at #2).
@Maura Johnston: Also, I’m not a fan of the man, but the “Bush Apologizes” fictional article was the sorriest excuse for “Hey, it’s early January and there’s nobody noteworthy to throw on the cover” issue.
@Maura Johnston: Generalist mags are gonna get hurt real bad in ‘09. Niche/genre titles will struggle, but survive, is my prediction.
I have zero sympathy for Blender’s situation. You want to hear about how they treat prospective customers? Read about the experience I had…
In April of last year I went on the Blender website to sign up for a subscription. I should mention first off that I live in Canada. So I filled out most of the relevant contact info but when I went to the drop down menu/box that said “Country” it only had one listed – “United States”. If there’s only one country to choose from I don’t understand why the hell it would even have a drop down thing. Then I went to the “States” box, hoping (as some websites do) that the Canadian provinces might be listed there. They weren’t. Nowhere on Blender’s subscription page was there any mention that subscriptions were only available to U.S. residents. Okay, so I sent them an email and they apologized and sent a phone number that I could call to obtain a subscription (not toll free either, by the way).
I call the number, explain my situation and request the same subscription rate that the pullout card in the magazine advertises – $19.97 (U.S. dollars plus $10 extra because I’m in Canada) for 36 issues. The customer service rep is unable to input a subscription for this rate…the computer wouldn’t accept it or some such nonsense. Then she tells me to just mail the card in. Very helpful.
So I mail it and several weeks later I get my first issue in the mail along with a mailed invoice. The invoice is billing me $47.97 (U.S. dollars) for 36 issues. WTF?! I send them an email saying this is not the price on the card I mailed in and their 2 subsequent replies were completely unhelpful, basically just restating that this was the price I was being billed and not addressing at all my complaint that they’re not honoring their advertised price. I told them I refused to pay the higher price and even offered to pay for the two issues I had received, but pro-rated at the price I signed up for and that I then wanted nothing more to do with them. After that I got another threatening invoice in the mail (at the inflated amount) telling me that service would be cut off if I didn’t pay. It was and I haven’t heard anything since.
I sent one more email to them summarizing the whole sequence of events and let them know they were an embarrassment and deserving of any bad fate that befalls them due to low subscription numbers (yes, I actually wrote “befalls”).