Wake up weekly music press you are dead

The Royal Family is not the only large organisation that has been putting out the bunting, for its Golden Jubilee celebrations this year. Another establishment figure, perhaps not as lovingly treasured as dear old Queenie, but one facing equal concerns with regards to its relevance in the 21st century, also celebrates the big five-o this year.

The New Musical Express, or to give its more pithier title the NME, celebrates 50 years in circulation, with a series of events to celebrate this momentous occasion. With it comes the re-launch, with a glossier smaller cover, one that has seen the movement from the bottom shelf to amongst the other glossy music titles.

The re-launch prompts discussions with regards to the state of the weekly music press, often dubbed the ‘inkies.’ Pessimists will offer up the closure of the Melody Maker, just before Christmas 2000, after 73 years in circulation as evidence that re-launches, do not always work.

The last few years in circulation for the Melody Maker, where problematic, with its various re-launches and re-branding, which resulted in the watering down of the content of the paper; as well as the change from an A5 inkie to a Smash Hits styled glossy magazine.

At the time of its closure, the Melody Makers circulation was down to about, 32,500, (down 14.9% on the previous years figures) the lowest in its history. IPC, the Melody Makers owners, ironically the owners of the NME too, closed the Melody Maker, as it was then felt to be no longer sustainable.

In the end its decline was inevitable. The magazine was struggling to get interviews with front line bands. Most bands preferred to be interviewed by the NME. There were few big name writers left, either most having been poached or defected to other publications. Also few bands bothered to advertise because the readership was so low.

The Melody Maker may be no more, but its name still lives on in some form. Its huge archive has been transferred to its sister paper, the NME’s website. Also transferred were some of the regular features that have appeared in the Melody maker throughout the years.

So what of the NME? First reflections may be that it should be in a position of strength, having seen off its nearest rivals but the most recent figures published by the Audit Bureau of Circulation have seen the circulation decline to 70,003.

Recent figures have also shown that Kerrang, the rock music equivalent, has pushed out its market share also. Though Kerrang is not strictly a weekly music publication as it is published twice a month, it still competes for a similar readership and bands as the NME.

IPC Music and Sport director Mike Soutar said the company intended to continue to broaden the appeal of the NME,

“The NME has about 40% command of the rock magazines sold in the UK and plans are to look at the options of being the only weekly in the market. We have spent the sort term building nme.com, but now the focus would return to the magazine”

Where does this leave the NME? In the current climate the NME has no direct competitors in the weekly press. Having seen off rivals such as Record Mirror, Sounds and of course Melody Maker in the last ten years.

At fifty it may be sustainable in the present cutthroat world of publishing, but is it still relevant? This is a question that no doubt prompted the recent talk at the Flying Picket, In Liverpool, as part of the yearly, Writing On the Wall festival, entitled ‘Wake up NME, you are dead’ question marks have been raised with regards to its credibility and not its sustainability. The Writing on the Wall talk proclaimed the NME as,

“Once the radical voice of British popular music the NME has sold its soul to global multi-media interests. Today’s NME is timid, conservative and bland.”

The talk at the Picket attracted big names from the papers history, as well current journalist such as Steven Wells and former journalist and current musician, John Robb, who is well versed in looking at the state of the weekly music press from both perspectives.

Steven Wells, current NME writer – outspoken to the last - came up with the following point of view in relation to the fact that the NME has seemingly sold out,

“I feel your pain, I really do. But in the modern business environment we have all to move with the times. We have to adapt. We have to change with the times. Look at it this way: NME is like a shark. It either keeps going forward or, it dies.”

No doubt with tongue firmly in check he added with regards to the take over of IPC by Time Warner he added,

“We are all HUGE, HUGE, HUGE, fans of Time Warner and we are too damn honest and bursting with journalistic integrity to let a silly thing like a corporate takeover stop us from carrying on praising the many fine products and services, provided by the cool folks at wonderful Time Warner.”

It would be naïve to believe, that such a takeover was the reason for any perceived problems that the NME has encountered. Even as far back as its perceived heyday at the end of the 1970’s, at a time when Punk was in its infancy, the NME was a name amongst other titles. The problem that the NME faces today is one of content. The NME is a music newspaper but when the music becomes the news, like it has done recently. Where does that leave the NME?

Also technology has moved on, in the Internet age can the NME strengthen itself. Steve Sutherland a former editor of the NME, who is now brand director for IPC Music and Sport, believes,

“That the Internet could sound the death knell of the traditional rock n roll journalist and of a rock n roll paper.”

The NME has always prided its self on the fact that it is a champion of new bands. A fact that has always been apparent, in its ‘build them up and knock them down’ attitude, that appears when yesterdays big thing have served their purpose and have moved on to the to the next thing.

It’s a fickle nature but is one that has served them well down the years. But music tends to come in waves and scenes. It’s a cyclical business, which is either feast or famine. At present, there is not a scene that the NME can get behind and champion. More often than not the NME is accused of making scenes and hyping bands.

The last two big music scenes came at the start of the Nineties, with the Madchester scene, which heralded the emergence of bands such as the Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, and The Charlatans.

The Mid Nineties saw the Britpop years with bands such as Oasis, Blur, Elastica, Pulp and the re-emergence of the Stone Roses, bands who all sought their influence from bands of the past such as the Beatles and The Kinks. Britpop was a scene that indiscriminately lumped British bands into one scene by virtue of a geographical positioning than by any uniformity of music.

Britpop was big news and stories that would have previously been the domain of the NME, became big news with the other media outlets, such as the tabloids and even with television news.

One story, which the NME covered in great detail, with its front-page depiction of two heavyweight boxers slugging it out in championship bout, was for the simultaneous release of Blur and Oasis single on the same day.

This was a prime example of music industry hyping, but was manna from heaven for the NME, as they saw a rise in their circulation as a result of the Britpop battle. Even the BBC evening news covered the story with vox pops outside music stores, capturing record buyers asking whom there money was on.

This event showed that the music and stories that had only been a traditionally NME only occurrence, was now in the public domain. People didn’t need to go to the NME for news of their favourite band; they could see them in the tabloids. The problem that the NME faces is one of where does it reposition it’s self now with regards to the tastes and styles of its readership.
Speaking in the 40th anniversary edition of the NME the then editor Danny Kelly, repeated the mantra that has served them well down the years.

“ All we’ve done over the last forty years is not as important as what we do next week and the week after that.”

Written in 1992, Kelly seemingly for saw the proliferation of other media getting in on the act his response at the time served as something of a rallying call.

“The other thing that knockers are fond of saying is that as more and more media get to grips with rock and pop, so NME, will wither and to that I say bring ‘em on.”

The NME has always evolved with regards to its content; the NME of the 1950’s was certainly a different beast to the one of today. The launch issue was that of a Big Band paper and saw its typical reader as a musician, than that of a fan. Throughout the years the NME has covered Rock n Roll, the Traditional Jazz movement of the early sixties. As well as the Mersey beat era of Pop, Rock, Heavy Rock, e.g. Led Zeppelin, Prog rock, New wave, New Romantic, Pop, Indie, Madchester, Acid House, Dance grunge and Britpop.

Throughout the years Melody Maker and the NME had their heyday, in an age where rock n roll was an entity for a single constituency. But the growing fragmentation of the music market has eaten away at the audiences at these once popular magazines.

In line with this fragmentation in the styles of music, there has also been something of a fragmentation in the music press. In the 1980’s, Smash Hits came along and dented a big proportion of the readership. Whilst at the time the NME, was dabbling in other areas, other than music such as fashion and an ideology crusade on behalf of black musicians, with a barely disguised contempt for mainstream rock.

The NME was alienating its readership. Further attacks on the papers circulation came in the late 1980’s with the launch of Q magazine. Q interviewed stars that the NME had long since not cared to Interview and with nothing much new musically happening at the time, the NME was struggling.
With the varying different genres and sub-genres of music titles having come and gone the NME has faced some difficult competition.

Steve Sutherland, NME brand director doesn’t believe that these magazines are direct competition for the NME

“ I don’t compare us with those other magazines. For a start we’re a weekly, with on-the-ball news stories and reviews. And we’ve consistently written about the bands that other magazines have then latched on to. I’ve always seen monthly magazines like the Face and Q as essentially luxury purchases, normally following up on what we have discovered first.”

Steve Sutherland’s claim that the NME has ‘taken on an identifiable brand name’ almost as an institution isn’t entirely to be disregarded. Music has become sub-divided into smaller categories people are more eclectic in their listening, Its always going to be harder to appeal to a whole cross-section of readers every week. He further argues that with the Internet,

“Opinionated rants that have characterised music journalism for the past 30 years may not be appropriate in the Internet age.”

The future of the NME brand in the long-term may be with its Internet site NME.com that has 1.30 million unique users and that traffic is growing at almost 5-10% per month. So perhaps the future for the NME, may rest with its Internet website.

The last few years, has seen the NME repositioning itself as a more mainstream music title. To survive magazines need investment, they also need to move on and they need to reflect the changing lifestyle patterns of the readership. This has generally been well received with readership figures remaining relatively constant.

The NME has always prided itself on being interactive way before the days that interactive were inextricably linked with the Internet and new technologies. Angst is the letters page, dedicated to reader’s rants and ruminations of the NME populace.

It is a good measure of the changes that have taken place within the NME. It is apparent that over the last year scanning through the pages there has seemingly been a change in editorial policy of the paper, with the Introduction of new editor, Ben Knowles.

The typical NME concerns of Indie bands – typically white Middle Class as well as dance music, where joined by more mainstream acts from the popular music scene such as RnB and Garage acts to the Pop stars and Pop idol phenomena. This was not universally well-received one apoplectic reader Richard Gillings, Colchester wrote in 21ST April 2002.

“ There used to be four weekly music magazines. And then there was one. But for how long? It is changing out of all recognition, with the likes of Hear’ Say and Mrs Beckham reviews and Interviews. Since when did the NME readers want to read about this.

And what has happened to the Indie charts? In the last few weeks there have just been the official charts, i.e. wall-to-wall shite. NME needs to decide what kind of readership it’s really after it truly is a music paper.”

I could have included other letters, but this one typifies the seemingly anger and betrayal of a readership. Another such letter highlighting the anger and betrayal of the readership was posted to the NME by Victor Mildew, of
Namchester (sic) complaining about the issue NME, April 28.

“I found out the corner was adorned with a picture of Destiny’s Child. If I wanted to read about this sort of rubbish, I’d go out and spend my money on a teen-mag.”

In response to this and other letters on the subject, Neil Thompson who no doubt echoed the sentiments of his fellow NME writers edited the angst page that week.

“ What’s the big problem that so many of you have with Destiny’s Child? The above is one of the least offensive of the tirades sent in this week. Just realise that there are no rules any longer and NME is not and never has been a platform for snobbish prejudice, just a vehicle for great music.

The past six months have seen Wu-Tang clan, Amen, Daft Punk, The Manics, Missy Elliot and Mogwai all on our cover. The Indie fan is an endangered species. Its time to get your head out of the sand and into the clouds. Lets get it together people – stop complaining and start embracing all the diverse and brilliant music there is around”

Even attempts at incorporating Politics into the paper have fallen foul of Mr Irate of Colchester. The typical complaint being of “you’re a music paper – not a newspaper”, have been the typical complaints voiced Whilst trying to cover the May Day riots last year as well, the abolition of tuition fees, and the front page with the London Mayor as well as the on going legalisation of cannabis debate, It has seen a fairly apathetic response.

Seemingly the comments have been taken into consideration as the recent issues of the NME have seemingly reverted to the archetypical bands that have served the NME down the years. Angst has reverted to its usual type of ‘my band is better than your band’ type debates, than the recent concerns questioning the actual content of the publication.

It remains to be seen what the future will hold for the NME one thing is for certain the mythical great age that everyone talks about has for certain disappeared. Society has changed. Listening and reading habits have changed and also. Added to this technology has moved on. The Internet has replaced the main reason for purchasing the NME in the first place. Whether or not people use the nme.com or other sites. The need for the NME may be no more if the current circulation figures drop any further.

The weekly music press may be on its last legs, but the NME name may live on, as it strives for the same of credibility that it has always strived for.