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NME IS TO close its print edition after 66 years.
The iconic music magazine’s website will continue, as will its new weekly digital franchise The Big Read.
The magazine became free in September 2015, after its circulation dropped to 15,000. The website launched in 1997.
“Our move to free print has helped propel the brand to its biggest ever audience on NME.com,” Paul Cheal of Time Inc, which publishes NME, told the Guardian.
“We have also faced increasing production costs and a very tough print advertising market. It is in the digital space where effort and investment will focus to secure a strong future for this famous brand.”
Time Inc UK is consulting with NME’s 23 editorial and commercial staff about possible redundancies, the Guardian said.
Musicians, contributors and fans have been paying tribute to the publication, with Kasabian describing today as “truly sad”.
Paul Weller / TwitterRIP NME pic.twitter.com/RqZ8iRhuR3
— Paul Weller (@paulwellerHQ) March 7, 2018
KasabianHQ / TwitterA truly sad day that such an icon is no more. Thank you for the memories. They're gonna miss you when you're gone. RIP NME. pic.twitter.com/NWUddsg1iV
— KasabianHQ (@KasabianHQ) March 7, 2018
Libertines / TwitterVery sorry to hear about the @NME issuing its last print edition. Love to all the writers there who’ve helped us over the years, and to all of you that picked up a copy. Blessed to have had you in our corner. pic.twitter.com/EzZ7cvCaYQ
— Libertines (@libertines) March 7, 2018
Danny Baker / TwitterThe NME never once asked me where I studied. Or what certificates I had. Or where I saw myself in 5 years. They just sent you to see some band and asked for 400 words on them. If they liked it they'd give you an album to review. Next thing you know you're in New York...
— Danny Baker (@prodnose) March 7, 2018
The last print edition will be available this Friday.
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Sad news
In the mid 70′s reading about music wasn’t mainstream like now. when i got my first job it was a luxury to buy.
@Sean Conway: great story.
This is a truly sad day for music fans. Now where am I supposed to get updates on how iconic Pete Doherty is or what a lovable rascal Liam Gallagher is!
@KSI: people listen Pete Doherty and Liam Gallagher, tossers squared.
Trouble with NME was its writers. They increasingly disappeared up their own jacksie in the past 25 years. Often sneered at bands they simply didn’t like or understand or before their time. There was a correlation between the snowflake generation leaving university this century and going to work for the likes of the NME. No loss.
@Ó Connmhaigh: Its not just in the last 25 years though, they were up their jacksies in the 70s too. It was strange to read a review of a gig that went really well and it was obvious the journalist wasn’t even there and probably got a verbal run down from a mate who was there and drunk, lonely and bitter. They used students from the north of England who had no experience of music or life at all. In the 80s that prat from the pet shop boys was one them before having a go himself and doing his own reviews lol. No loss.
It’s a sad day. NME was a huge part of my teenage years..
Is there anything really going on in music at the moment that makes you want to buy music mags. No punk, Manchester or britpop happening
@Dave O’Hanlon: there is loads going on in music but people aren’t buying any sort of print media.
@Dave O’Hanlon: I agree. The corporations won. I can only think of a handful of guitar bands in recent years that were any good. Manufactured pop and nostalgia bands are all that’s left.
@Dave O’Hanlon: Should have been Madchester not Manchester. I agree Toomasu there seems to be no one in rock sticking two fingers up to the system, if a rock band comes out now slagging X-factor(like they should) they’d be derided by everyone.
I haven’t bought a music magazine in years. There really is no need for them anymore.
Odd how so few of them have any kind of decent online presence, though, considering it’s been obvious for years the printed press was dying. Out with the old in with the new , I guess.
Here’s hoping the rather cancerous mainstream media is next.
It’s the end of an era – weren’t the rubbish papers meant to stop printing first?
@Sean Lynch: Unfortunately somebody is still buying The Sun and The Mail.
The one mainstream music paper that backed punk/new wave, I loved it.
Sign of the times. NME was always read by teens and twenty somethings who have now embaced online media wholesale , the day’s of tens of thousands of people visiting a newsagent to buy a copy have long gone. As this generation gets older this phenomenon will spread to all print media. Even the news and media oligarchy which keep the industry afloat today won’t be able to subsidise newspapers once they reach the drop off point in sales that has already sunk the NME magazine.
As the last print medium shuts down, the date is set for future archaeologists and historians to define a new dark ages, a new prehistory. Since eventually all that’s stored on servers will likely become inaccessible, if the hardware survives at all.
@Mick Tobin: At least some forests might survive.
@Mick Tobin: Data on servers is far more accessible (and durable) than print archives. Also, print archives are the hardware of the previous generation and are at least as susceptible to damage and loss as servers are.
Used to read each NME after my brother. Bought my own when punk came along. It had some memorable covers.
The money I handed over for an issue in 1974 has lasted them a lot longer than I thought it would.
Crap mag, crap critics, crap writers who liked crap bands
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