It was important magazine once. Not anymore. They drove away the old Boomers and X-ers who subscribed to it (throwing us a bone every now and then with a cover story on Rush or AC/DC) and they weren't able to replace us with younger readers, who just don't buy magazines.
And not just Rolling Stone. Pretty much all print media is facing the same fate.
“And not just Rolling Stone. Pretty much all print media is facing the same fate. “
I used to spend $40-50/mo. on magazines back in the day.
In the past 10 years I may have bought a dozen total.
The mega grocery nearby has a mag aisle that I recently discovered and about 2/3 of the titles I’ve never seen before. Everything from knitting to guns, travel, cooking and a bunch more.
You remained subscribed after their “rape epidemic” story turned out to be not only a lie but full on libel?
It’s sort of amazing that Rolling Stone lasted as long as it did, and I think it’s numbers were still respectable 7 or 8 years ago. The last decade has been rough for them.
If you are a “rock n roll” magazine, you have to cover youth culture. At the same time, youth culture today has nothing to do with rock and roll, and Millenials are not buying magazines.
They probably could plug along for a few more years writing cover stories on Springsteen and the next Stones retirement tour, but eventually your audience is literally going to die.
I still try to stay somewhat in touch with “modern” music, so I would get annoyed when I was a subscriber when they spent so many pages on, like, Led freakin’ Zeppelin.
At the same time, with new acts, you don’t get the same access as they used to get. So you are writing a story on - I dunno - Justin Bieber based on a two hour interview in a hotel conference room.
The Almost Famous says of touring and traveling with an act are dead and gone. No publicist in his or her right mind would allow that.
In the 1980s...I read Rolling Stone....off and on. They could come up with two or three really great articles in each copy.
I do agree with you...most all of these magazines went through some phase about a dozen years ago, and the mindset became that you’d politicize different things and spoon-feed people. National Geographic, Arizona Highways, and even Readers Digest....went this way. Time and Newsweek were probably five years ahead of them.
Now, I will say this. If you walked in and bought Rolling Stone and just said...no more political copy...just plain culture, rock, music, and trends...you would rebuild the base and bring the brand-name back. I don’t think such an owner exists, and the magazine will end in twelve months.
I used to read it cover to cover in the early 70’s..........