Posted on 04/17/2009 5:34:04 PM PDT by Steelfish
Rolling Stone closes last S.F. office
James Temple, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, April 17, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO -- Rolling Stone Magazine has severed its last tenuous link to San Francisco, the city where Jan Wenner co-founded the irreverent biweekly 42 years ago to cover the psychedelic rock scene and counterculture movement flourishing in the region.
New York publisher Wenner Media will shutter its three-person office at 1700 Montgomery St., spokesman Mark Neschis said.
It housed one Rolling Stone sales representative, who will relocate to Los Angeles. The other two employees, a Men's Journal representative and an assistant, are being laid off.
"There wasn't enough business to justify having a full time office in San Francisco," Neschis said. "It's a challenging economic environment."
Indeed, the magazine's ad pages dropped nearly 17 percent in April compared to the same issue last year and are down nearly 22 percent year to date, according to the Mediaweek trade publication. Men's Journal is faring even worse, with ad pages down 39 percent over last year.
In recent months, Wenner Media has conducted several rounds of layoffs across its titles, which also include Us Weekly, according to media reports.
"They're being caught in the same maelstrom, although somewhat less so, as newspapers," said John Morton, a media analyst with Morton Research Inc. in Silver Spring, Md. "They're looking for ways to save money."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Paper media in general are suffering.
Ask anyone under 30 about Rolling Stone and you get a blank stare. Nobody reads it anymore.
I read every issue when I was younger. Now I am waiting to cheer out loud when this leftist crap rag finally goes under.
I subscribed and read it religiously 1976 - 1982. I think I may have read one or two issues since then, around 1987.
Lately, it’s just another leftist rag I ignore on the newsstand.
DAMNNN Rolling Stone still in business I haven’t read since 1980s
For all the hippie dippy stuff that was the 60’s and 70’s, the music was actually real and enduring music, and RS covered it well. Compared to the ephemeral junk and particularly the insidious rap music of the 90’s and currently which RS is now onliged to cover.
God I sound like some old coot romanticizing the “good old days” but it’s hard to find any merit in today’s music.
Their job is done.
That’s because people are sick and tired of their Bush-bash and Obama kiss-ass covers. It’s also something to have an editor-in chief/publisher who cheated on his wife with another man. Sick.
Best thing about RS was P.J.
And occasionally HST.
Amusingly, this is where the story gets cut off on the main page with the Latest Articles. Par for the course with that magazine, I'd think.
yep - hunter s. thompson and pj o’roarke. Also the occasional memorable interview - like Dylan in 1984.
google: dylan rolling stone interview infidels
excerpt:
Do you still hope for peace?
There is not going to be any peace.
You don’t think it’s worth working for?
No It’s just gonna be a false peace. You can reload your rifle, and that moment you’re reloading it, that’s peace. It may last for a few years.
Isn’t it worth fighting for that?
Nah, none of that matters. I heard somebody on the radio talkin’ about what’s happenin’ in Haiti, you know? “We must be concerned about what’s happening in Haiti. We’re global people now.” And they’re gettin’ everybody in that frame of mind - like, we’re not just the United States anymore, we’re global. We’re thinkin’ in terms of the whole world because communications come right into your house. Well, that’s what the Book of Revelation is all about. And you can just about know that anybody who comes out for peace is not for peace.
But what if someone genuinely is for peace?
Well, you can’t be for peace and be global. It’s just like that song “Man of Peace.” But none of this matters, if you believe in another world. If you believe in this world, you’re stuck; you really don’t have a chance. You’ll go mad, ‘cause you won’t see the end of it. You may wanna stick around, but you won’t be able to. On another level, though, you will be able to see this world. You’ll look back and say, “Ah, that’s what it was all about all the time. Wow, why didn’t I get that?”
And Tom Wolfe.
RIP
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.