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By Øyvind Rones (2005) Specialist media have seen a growing competition not only from other specialist publications, but also from online magazines and more general publications. As a result of this, has the role of specialist media changed during the past few years, and if so, how? Also, what does the future hold for these publications? Introduction Newspapers and magazines are constantly trying to cover more areas of interest which the specialist media are covering in each their area. This research will be based on whether this is a threat to the specialist media and what the people involved with specialist media needs to do to keep their audience from abandoning them for more general publications. Another thing that has come up as a major competitive element for specialist print media is the growing number of online magazines that have got an extensive coverage in different areas. The focus in this research will be on print music magazines versus online music magazines, newspapers and other more general publications (men’s magazines, women’s magazines, sports magazines). The aim of this is to find out is whether there have been a shift, and what the changes have been. As a consequence of these changes, some players might have felt pressured to compromise their publication’s content to avoid losing their readership. The research done in this area is very limited at the moment, which is why the major part of this assignment is based on new research that is done for the purpose of this project. This research constitutes interviews with people active in the business today in online magazines as well as someone from a more general publication, like a daily newspaper. All of these publications have always been, and are still, working as tastemakers and trendsetting institutions in both mainstream and underground cultures. This article will also deal with how this aspect of it has changed over the decades, and how the new media have adjusted and changed to become a central element in the big picture. Media The Internet Since the Internet made its entry and revolutionised the media world and the way we consume media today, it has been a constant challenge for the players in the business not to end up behind the pack. For players that formerly only published print news, the news value of the stories has increased drastically with the opportunity to give the audience the news immediately via the Internet. But the Internet has also proved to become a competitor for the print media, when someone actually bases their whole publication online. As this is really cheap compared to starting a print publication, it is a constant threat to the print media. The key to the solution is to be able to balance this, or to find a way to make one of the two give something the other can not give. The Internet is already a bit ahead in that process, with the opportunity to offer multimedia material. This sort of material that is under copyright law, has been constantly debated over the past four years reaching a preliminary climax when rock legends Metallica sued shareware giant Napster for breaking the copyright law. While new copyright law proposals are being up for consideration, some record companies are reacting with convulsionary decisions by protecting all their releases from being copied. This is the defence technique which appears almost as a reflex act by the record companies, without considering the consequences of it. There are exceptions from this though. In an article in Business Week Online, Heather Green talks about how the concept Team Love was tested in order to stay on top of the game or at least not lose too much territory. The concept is to offer a bands album in its entirety as a free download when it is released for sale in record stores, and to use this as a marketing tool instead of as a threat. Jamie Williams, a member of the pioneer band in the project, Tilly and the Wall, said that “it's a way to be part of what's happening today and not try to control it.” If the major labels will choose to use this as an example of what they will do in the near future is impossible to say now, but it would not be the first time sub-cultural institutions are protruding technological developments.
Newspapers have had an ever confronting question of shape and size of their publication in the tabloid/broadsheet debate for quite some time now. That question put aside this time, it is not the only question newspapers have had to ask themselves lately. For newspapers in general, most of them also have online editions of their publications online as well as in print form. The content available online is most likely to be a strictly limited version of the print edition. This is a process that has dragged out for a long time when it comes to magazines, also music magazines. Background/History At all times in the history of music and music journalism, there have been certain trends that have been defining for generations and individuals in cultures and subcultures. Music magazines have been the voice of many of these, and important in the way that trends have been developed, whether it be mainstream or underground trends.
Rolling Stone Magazine The original American version of Rolling Stone Magazine, based in San Francisco, is considered one of the pioneers of music journalism today, with the first issue published 9 November 1967. John Lennon was on the cover of this issue of the magazine that proved to become one of, if not the most influential music magazine ever to exist. For years, even decades, Rolling Stone kept their position as the most influential magazine, but today it would be wrong to say that they still are. This is an interesting scenario, and much of the reason why this question is as interesting as it is. How can a publication go from being the most influential music magazine of all time, to being just another magazine in the crowd? Rolling Stone must have gone wrong or missed out somewhere. So what was it that made the Rolling Stone magazine the most influential music magazine? To find out we will have to go back in time and have a look at the ideas behind the magazine and how they were put out into practice. Jann Wenner was the man with the ideas and the determination and courage to do something about them. His love for music and writing got him thinking about his opportunities, and the failure of other music magazines guided him through to an idea that would make a solid music magazine. Crawdaddy!, a music magazine that was based on the idea of being “a magazine of rock and roll criticism,” was one of the inspirations in the creation of the Rolling Stone magazine. Wenner, a Crawdaddy! reader, also used ideas from different other music magazines at the time, such as Melody Maker, Mojo-Navigator and Oracle. He took what he thought was the best features of these magazines, and was left with a clear idea of what would be the ultimate music magazine. This was to be a magazine that did “take rock seriously as a cultural phenomenon,” but as opposed to Crawdaddy!, it would be more entertaining and less snobby and less philosophical. The Mojo-Navigator was in Wenner’s mind a good publication, but this one was not run properly financially wise, so from this Wenner picked up valuable knowledge as well. And like Warren Hinckle was Ramparts, and like Hugh Hefner was Playboy, Wenner wanted to be a magazine. So, what happened? Rolling Stone was probably the most influential music magazine in the seventies and early eighties, and all of a sudden their position faded. One theory is that after being number one for such a long time, they simply could not handle new competition. The first proper competition came in the shape of Spin, a music magazine that also wanted to be fresh and cutting-edge. This lead to a change in the content of the Rolling Stone magazine, a change towards a more commercial and ‘safe’ content. And by doing that, they lost a lot of the credibility that they had spent the past two decades building. When they in addition to this started working with MTV in the early nineties, they reached a new low credibility-wise. And in today’s music media situation Rolling Stone has lost its position in the throng of music magazines, and changed audience completely because of the commercialisation of the magazine. New Musical Express New Musical Express (NME) is an English music magazine, one of the few that is published every week. NME has its focus on news, and has, in addition to the print edition that comes out every week, a quite extensive online version as well. To get the whole stories, people must buy the magazine, but to go more into detail you have to get the print copy. The online version can offer a lot of things the print version can not though. I am talking about multimedia material, such as music snippets, videos and interviews. Now, for a long time it has been common to include a CD or a CD-ROM with the print editions once in a while. Some magazines do this in every issue; these are mostly just monthly magazines though, such as Mojo, Uncut, and Rock Sound. Other magazines attract audiences by offering free CDs if you subscribe to their publication. NME does give their readers a free CD sometimes, but not on a regular basis or at set times of the year. When it comes to influential music magazines, this one has been big over the past decade. In England, being an influential country in itself, they are very much in control of the music industry. This is also the magazine that has taken the term ‘hype’ to new levels, by literary hyping new bands out of proportions quite often. And this is reflected in the British charts, and slowly it has become more and more visible outside of England as well. NME is still regarded as important because they discover bands from the local scenes and underground and present them to a bigger audience. Even though only a fraction of the bands they are hyping ever make it big commercially, they keep pulling new bands up from the underground and independent music scene. Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media is an American Internet music magazine that has become quite a phenomenon over the past couple of years. The Chicago-based website is according to the Chicago Tribune read by 120,000 people every day, which is a big readership for an alternative music website. This is obviously an element of competition for the print music magazines, and will continue to be in the future. Pitchfork is updated with news and reviews more or less on a daily basis, and they are holding nothing back, as in the example of NME. This adds another level to the competition when it comes to production costs, when expensive print media have to compete with non-expensive online media. When it also appeals to the same audience, it is inevitable that parts of the audience will reconsider and maybe leave the print publication as they can easier access and cheaper get a hold of what they are looking for at the website. Mute, VG and Groove The three publications I have chosen to give a clearer image of what the situation between the different media types in the same niche are three Norwegian publications. Mute is Norway’s leading music magazine, and is a relatively new publication with its first issue released in 2002. As of yet, Mute is still not available online in any shape, but by the looks of it a website is under construction. When Mute was introduced in 2002, there was no other music magazine that had such a broad range of genres and appeal at that time, and it still is for that matter. Now, with these magazines, it is obvious that the content is connected to the trends in music to some extent. A music magazine like Mute could easily put any artist or band on the front cover if that means they would sell more magazines, in many ways what has made Rolling Stone lose some of their credibility in the business. VG is a nationwide tabloid newspaper, and the one with the highest circulation in Norway. This is a position the newspaper has maintained since 1981. It features a music section every Tuesday which includes the obligatory album reviews, charts, the occasional concert review in addition to news and current articles about music. As a very commercial publication, even being the media that owns the rights to the official sales charts in Norway, there is no doubt that it has a certain degree of influence on the record buying audience. This emphasizes their significance as a representative for the general publications that are getting more and more into detail constantly covering more and more areas of interest. The chart that was started by VG in 1958 also has its own television program on a national network, and the ‘VG-chart’ has become a trademark that everyone can recognize. VG’s website is the biggest website in Norway, with more than 600,000 individual users every day. Stein Østbø, music editor of VG, says that his publication needs to have a broad perspective when they pick what to publish in the newspaper in order to reach as many people as possible, simply because there is not enough space to go into more detail or into more areas. The Music Guide Groove is considered as one of Norway’s two most respected music websites, the other being Panorama. Groove is unique in a couple of different ways though, for one thing their archival feature which is really taking advantage of the opportunities the Internet is opening up for. This function is a development that print publications have no chance of keeping up with today. Another thing about Groove that is very different from any print publication is that no one writing for the website gets paid for it. This is common for websites though, as the income for a website might be very limited. On the other hand, there are no major expenses involved in it, at least not which exceeds the income of advertising. When asked about the content of his publication, editor of Groove, Bjørn Hammershaug, says that “ever since the beginning we have just done what we wanted to do, no compromises.” As a website of their kind they have no obligation to write in a certain style or adjust their content according to someone or something else, and it has proven to fit well into the shift we are in the middle of. INSIDE THE MEDIA The protagonists of the Norwegian music media are in each their way a part of how the audience are shaping their media habits. And for music journalism, this is also to a large extent about being tastemakers as well; Pitchfork Media is a good example of this. When Hammershaug is asked what his publication’s position in the Norwegian music media was, he says that it is more about “complementing each other” rather than competing with each other. This is from a website’s perspective, and would undoubtedly differ quite a lot from a magazine’s perspective. The new media and the shift that we have seen that has lead to the success of the new media, has got a major advantage though. The fact that this new media has proven so successful, must mean that it offers something that other types of media can not offer. And when they can do it at low cost in addition to that, the traditional media gets something to think about. Hammershaug emphasizes the fact that a website has got an unlimited amount of space, and especially when comparing to newspapers with some music coverage, this is priceless if people would like just a little bit of detail and depth in what they are reading. The relationship between these different types of publications is interesting, as one publication (X) can be a threat to another one (Y), but publication Y does not have to be a threat to publication X. X on the other hand might be threatened by another publication (Z). If interpreted logically, this makes the equation balanced. And in real life, it appears quite balanced as well; like Hammershaug said, it is more about complementing each other. Østbø says that “the print music magazines, both nationally and internationally, are thinking more about adjusting into than competing with the existing market,” and at the same time indicating that the audience have become more critical about what they read. About online magazines and other websites he says that “the important thing is to be critical towards the sources.” As soon as this barrier is overcome by the audience, they will have developed a general knowledge about how to find trustworthy information. This is another challenge for the print magazines, which judging by this is slowly being squeezed out in the cold. In general it is obvious that it is the print music magazines that are facing the biggest challenge of them all. This becomes even clearer after comparing what Østbø and Hammershaug said about other types of media. Østbø points out that they, as a daily newspaper have limited column space for specialist areas like music, and adds that this is an advantage for the print magazines. Hammershaug lists the unlimited column space as one of the advantages of the online magazine. So where does that leave the print magazine? CONCLUSIONS Although the music websites have entered and found their place in the music media today, it is quite clear that they have not completely taken over the place that have belonged to print magazines. The situation in Norway differs slightly from this general statement though, as there really only is only one music magazine that does not specialise in one particular genre. Østbø explains this with the fact that the music coverage in the daily newspapers increased drastically at the time when the music magazines were successful. So when the music magazines enjoyed their success, it was pretty much the beginning of the end for many of them. In the end there was no one left, not until Mute was introduced. In other words, the fall of the print music magazines in Norway had nothing to do with ‘the new media’ and the growing number of music websites, simply because this was a shift that happened before this was an issue. Whether this kind of shift can be connected to what happened to Rolling Stone magazine, is hard to say, but the fact that neither Østbø nor Hammershaug even mentions it when talking about influential music publications more than indicates that there has been some kind of a shift. Østbø indicates that this issue has become more and more segmented today and that if someone has an interest for music slightly above average, one specific publication does not have everything they need. As the situation is in Norway now, there is not much room for the print music magazines. The daily newspapers and the online music magazines are to a large extent complementing each other, enough to supply adequate information for the majority of the audience. This being said, there are a few of the major and minor international music magazines that are distributed in Norway as well and are taking a lot of the market away from prospective music magazines. This does indeed make the market in Norway complicated, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the future. At the moment the Norwegian electronic music media is developing fast, and the daily newspapers are not going to lose readership because of their music content, whereas the print music media is struggling to even survive. Everything is indicating that we are in the middle of a shift right now, and that with the growing number of niche music websites that are developing into something that one day might replace the print music magazine. BIBLIOGRAPHY Draper, Robert. 1990. Rolling Stone Magazine: The uncensored history. 1st Ed. New York, Doubleday. Østbø, Stein. 2005. E-mail interview about VG and the role of specialist media. (Received Tuesday 31 May 2005) Hammershaug, Bjørn. 2005. E-mail interview about Groove and the role of specialist media. (Received Wednesday 8 June 2005) Zeidler, Sue. 2004. Music magazines singing the blues in industry downturn. 27 April 2004. Available: Factiva; http://0-global.factiva.com.alpha2.latrobe.edu.au/en/eSrch/ss_hl.asp(Accessed 28 April 2005) Tunstall, Jeremy. “The United Kingdom”, in The Media in Western Europe: The Euromedia Handbook. Bernt Stubbe Østergaard (ed.) (London, SAGE Publications, 1992), pp238-255. The State of the News Media: An Annual Report of American Journalism: http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2005/index.asp (Accessed 2 May 2005) Green, Heather. 2004. Kissing Off the Big Music Labels. Business Week Online. Available: http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/04_36/b3898114_mz063.htm?tc (Accessed 28 May 2005) Right of Admission Reserved: How does the Media influence the Youth of today? http://www.roar.org.uk/press52.htm (Accessed 28 April 2005) Johansen, Carl Christian. 2002. Independent music press – or useful idiots? Music Information Centre Norway. Available: http://www.ballade.no/nmi.nsf/home/ballade?opendocument&url=http://www.ballade.no/nmi.nsf/doc/art2002120909400690035248 (Accessed 14 May 2005) http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/ Draper, Robert. 1990. Rolling Stone Magazine: The uncensored history. 1st Ed. New York, Doubleday. Kot, Greg. 2005. The New Tastemakers. Chicago Tribune. http://0-global.factiva.com.alpha2.latrobe.edu.au/en/eSrch/ss_hl.asp (accessed 23 May 2005) Use this tool to search our site or the web. | Free
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