Q Magazine's Future In Doubt



Future of Q magazine in doubt as coronavirus crisis hits media

I've always found Q a bit dull but suspect that this could start a domino effect.
It was always totally pompous. I`d read a wonderfully, flowery review full of ornate phrases and wonder what on earth they were going on about. By the end of the review I`d have no idea if the album/gig was great or dreadful. I thought it was all a bit pointless and seemed to be more a vehicle for the reviewer to show off their mastery of English than say what the album/gig was like.
 
There`s a thing called Readly that I tried a while ago and for £7.99 you get tons of magazines that you can read on your phone/tablet/computer. That has Q, Mojo, Uncut, Classic Rock, Prog, Planet Rock, Uncut, BBC History, History of War, The Week, Commando :)D), Viz, Photography magazines, Stuff, The Week, Time, BBC Wildlife and tons of other stuff. basically for the cost of one magazine you get access to loads of other stuff. It`s a bit like Spotify for magazines. Best of all you can have several user accounts so everyone in the family can have their own favourites saved.
 
It was always totally pompous. I`d read a wonderfully, flowery review full of ornate phrases and wonder what on earth they were going on about. By the end of the review I`d have no idea if the album/gig was great or dreadful. I thought it was all a bit pointless and seemed to be more a vehicle for the reviewer to show off their mastery of English than say what the album/gig was like.

I think that's why I didn't subscribe or read it regularly. In the 90s, I tended to prefer Vox and Select but they disappeared early on, primarily as they were basically monthly versions of NME/Melody Maker. Nowadays, I've got my monthly Uncut subscription and occasionally read Mojo or The Wire.
 
I suppose there’s only so many times you can do the making of what’s the story morning glory. It’s declined so much over the years, used to read it cover to cover even if I wasn’t a fan of the interviewees, lucky I finish reading it nowadays. Shame.

Iirc they didnt really rate Wtsmg,probably a decent summary
 
I actually think Q was just starting to get better recently, covering loads more diverse music and being early champions of newer artists. Tbf losing 180k in circulation over 20 years says something more about shifting consumer habits than the effects of Covid. This'll just push things over the edge / give publishers an excuse to make cuts.

I subscribe to Loud And Quiet, Mojo, Q, So Young, DIY and a couple more, being on top of things is an important part of my job. For anyone looking for a new music magazine to follow, I really can't recommend L&Q highly enough. It's on a brief hiatus at the moment while they drive subscriptions (75% of the way to long term safety) but they'll be back in summer.
 
I actually think Q was just starting to get better recently, covering loads more diverse music and being early champions of newer artists. Tbf losing 180k in circulation over 20 years says something more about shifting consumer habits than the effects of Covid. This'll just push things over the edge / give publishers an excuse to make cuts.

I subscribe to Loud And Quiet, Mojo, Q, So Young, DIY and a couple more, being on top of things is an important part of my job. For anyone looking for a new music magazine to follow, I really can't recommend L&Q highly enough. It's on a brief hiatus at the moment while they drive subscriptions (75% of the way to long term safety) but they'll be back in summer.

Might have a look at L&Q. The website suggests it's close to my interests in terms of newer, younger artists.

Edit: I think you're right about Q, it's changes to consumer habits as much as anything. As a publication, I think it's probably suffered from not specialising in anything and being a very general music publication, trying to appeal to as many people as possible and, thus, not being appealing enough for people to subscribe to.
 
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Might have a look at L&Q. The website suggests it's close to my interests in terms of newer, younger artists.

Edit: I think you're right about Q, it's changes to consumer habits as much as anything. As a publication, I think it's probably suffered from not specialising in anything and being a very general music publication, trying to appeal to as many people as possible and, thus, not being appealing enough for people to subscribe to.

They really lead the way on that. Given very early magazine covers to the likes of Nilüfer Yanya, Black Midi, Black Country New Road etc. as well as established ones like Brian Eno, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Solange, Jarvis Cocker.

The podcast Midnight Chats is really good - done them with Kim Gordon, James Acaster, Caribou and Karen O etc. As is their sister podcast Music Made Me Do It which focuses on one leading music industry pro each time e.g. Martin Mills who founded Beggars Group (XL/Rough Trade/Matador/4AD)
 
There's only so many articles about U2 that the world needs. Read by people who put their CDs in alphabetical order. I shall not mourn its passing.
 
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There`s a thing called Readly that I tried a while ago and for £7.99 you get tons of magazines that you can read on your phone/tablet/computer. That has Q, Mojo, Uncut, Classic Rock, Prog, Planet Rock, Uncut, BBC History, History of War, The Week, Commando :)D), Viz, Photography magazines, Stuff, The Week, Time, BBC Wildlife and tons of other stuff. basically for the cost of one magazine you get access to loads of other stuff. It`s a bit like Spotify for magazines. Best of all you can have several user accounts so everyone in the family can have their own favourites saved.
Yeah but does it have Razzle on it?;)
 
Bought Q regularly during the mid to late 90s and was canny value then, but like most are saying, I never buy mags now.

Pay 5 quid to read a single review of an album, when you can get more opinions than you could manage to read on the net.
 
I used to spend about 20 quid a week on magazines. Currently only buy The Fortean Times and sometimes BBC Wildlife.

I think it’s mainly about money for most people. A paper every day and a few magazines a week could click 150 a month. It’s understandable that people mainly use the internet because that’s a lot of money.

I do think magazines have gotten shitter because people went online to save money, not that the magazines got shit and turned people off (generally). If magazines and papers cost pennies I think we’d all have a coffee table covered in them.
 
Like others have said, I also subscribed to Q in the 90s but binned it after it suddenly became very thin....and a bit shite!

Not sure how any magazines survive these days with the internet?
 

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