NME changes focus, scraps cover price

Bob Geldof with his daughter Pixie, left, and late daughter Peaches at the NME Awards 2006 in London. Picture: AP Photo/PA/Yui Mok

Bob Geldof with his daughter Pixie, left, and late daughter Peaches at the NME Awards 2006 in London. Picture: AP Photo/PA/Yui Mok

Published Jul 7, 2015

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London - A "brand transformation" has been promised for the NME, the indie music bible, which has suffered a humbling collapse in sales and influence, after its publishers announced that the weekly title is to be given away free.

The last of the old-school weekly music magazines, the NME's circulation has slumped from a peak of 300,000 to barely 14,000 copies, with sales falling 20 per cent each year, as digital competition swept up demand for the latest news and views from a fast-changing music scene.

Time Inc UK, owners of the magazine, which nurtured star writers including Danny Baker and Julie Burchill and helped launch The Smiths and Oasis into the mainstream, announced that the NME's £2.60 cover price will be scrapped.

Instead more than 300,000 copies will be distributed nationally through stations, universities and retail partners, in an effort to keep afloat the print edition of a brand that claims to reach four million people worldwide through its website and social media channels.

However, the free NME, which launches in mid-September, will no longer be dedicated to bringing readers the latest music trends. Music will be downgraded in the new offering, which promises a "gateway into a wider conversation around film, fashion, television, politics, gaming and technology".

The NME's sales decline has mirrored a slump in popularity for the kind of "indie rock" bands it used to champion. The magazine, which embraced punk and hip-hop, often in the face of hostility from its core readership, must now navigate a world in which music is widely available free and fans less tribal in their tastes.

Mike Williams, editor of NME, said: "With this transformation we'll be bigger, stronger and more influential than ever before. That doesn't mean leaving print behind, but it does mean that print has to change, so I'm incredibly excited by the role it will now play as part of the new NME. The future is an exciting place, and NME just kicked the door down."

The NME hopes to follow the success of Time Out, which relaunched as a free title. But there were fears that the music publication could become indistinguishable from other free "lifestyle" magazines such as Shortlist, which enjoys a 500,000 circulation and Sport, which is read by 300,000 people.

The broadcaster Danny Baker, a former NME writer during its punk heyday, tweeted: "And so … the NME is a freesheet now. Why not? The game's up & the fire's gone out."

But Tony Parsons wished the free weekly "good luck" and added: "Frankly, I would have worked there for nothing."

Tim Burgess, the Charlatans singer, welcomed the move. "The ways we hear music & how we find out about it are always changing - some good, some not so. The NME being free is a brilliant thing," he tweeted.

Time Inc UK called the move "the latest stage in [NME's] evolution as an audience-first global media business" alongside its website.

Other highlights will include an expansion in "live events, and more video franchises".

The Independent

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