2016/12/19 15:54:12
Glyn Barnes
Here is some more bad news Team Rock, UK Music magazine publishers have gone into administation.
 
Tim Hall sums it up well on his blog
 

As if 2016 wasn’t already an utterly dreadful year, now comes the news that Team Rock, publishers of Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog magazines has gone into administration with the loss of 73 jobs, a week before Christmas.
 
If a buyer cannot be found and these titles cease publication it will be devastating blow not just for music writing but also for those genres of music ill-served by the rest of the British music press. It was host to many talented writers passionate about the sorts of music the mainstream media tended to dismiss as unfashionable and irrelevant.
 
You’d never catch any of their writers filing a Pseud’s Corner style piece about production line pop extruded for twelve-year-olds. Let’s hope they all land on their feet.
 
I hope something of Team Rock survives. For many of those bands who appear regularly on this blog, Prog Magazine in particular was the only national high street print publication that was ever likely to feature them. Yes, there are limited-circulation subscription-only magazines and many specialist bloggers, but nobody else has a fraction of Prog’s reach. I know I’ve been critical of Prog in the past, and questioned whether having one and only one powerful gatekeeper was healthy for the scene in the long term, but their loss will still leave a huge hole, and the bands will inevitably suffer from the loss of the exposure they brought.

 
I have found a lot of new music and get my collated list of upcoming concerts from "Prog" and "Classic Rock" and will miss them if they are no longer published.
 
 
 
2016/12/19 17:17:33
jamesg1213
That's a shame. It seems to me, with the demise of other mags like NME, that quality journalism is yet another devalued discipline.
2016/12/19 17:19:40
synkrotron
That is sad news indeed...
2017/01/19 08:21:31
Glyn Barnes
So at last some good news and some of the casualties of 2016 have been given a new lease of life.  Prog, Classic Rock and Metal Hammer magazines have been resuced by publisher PLC. I hope these magaziens maintain their high objective standards.
 
http://teamrock.com/news/2017-01-09/classic-rock-metal-hammer-and-prog-rescued-as-former-owner-future-steps-in
2017/01/19 09:01:42
Moshkito
Hi,
 
I don't know ... I bought a few of the Prog issues and still have them, and all that, but in the end, most of the magazine was not really about "prog", any more than it was about some top ten ideal for many bands that really are not exactly good representatives of progressive music.
 
The hard part, is that they are dating themselves too much, and not giving some more recent bands a good reason to stay together and perform some more. Some of these bands, on occasion end up showing at a prog festival somewhere, but the expense of them sticking together and playing more when they are adults and have children, makes life nearly impossible for them, and these magazines do not have the sultry half naked women to put on the cover to seduce you into buying anything.
 
My thoughts are that these magazines need to be more detailed and dedicated to the material at hand ... not just a snipet with 5 lines and a picture that is 10 years old! And a comment under it that sometimes undermines the value of their music and their work.
 
You guys, ought to take a look at "Eurock", that is really not in publication anymore, and go look at an issue from 1980, or so ... to give you an idea of how hard some people tried to get folks to know these things. "Eurock" may not have become a word of mouth fame thing, but it is vindicated ... almost every one of those artists is a huge name and respected in the world of foreign music appreciation and knowledge. You might not have heard of Richard Pinhas, or Heldon, but watch the news about one single show of his in Paris ... sort of like you and I trying to get tickets to catch Kate Bush ... and still no one knows much about her, and fewer people still look at her music ... after all she's a woman in a man's game!
 
The whole thing is sad, and sometimes pathetic. I appreciate saving the magazine, but would love to see the standards changed from top ten bands and improve the editorial stuff from 5 lines to 10, and make sure that person has heard the music, instead of just 10 seconds of each song and then say ... they sound like Kansas! To me, that's not journalism of any kind ... and this is where those magazines failed!
2017/01/19 10:05:11
craigb
But, for the rest of the civilized world, it's a good thing. 
2017/01/19 11:24:29
jamesg1213
Moshkito
 
 
You guys, ought to take a look at "Eurock", that is really not in publication anymore, and go look at an issue from 1980, or so ...




 
Hi,
 
No.
2017/01/19 14:01:49
eph221
Hi,
 
social darwinism demands companies and workers be adaptive to change.  Those are the winners, not most *fit* but those who can adapt to change.   It's always sad when things like this happens, but the music industry is very different now.  
2017/01/20 20:03:32
Moshkito
eph221
Hi,
 
social darwinism demands companies and workers be adaptive to change.  Those are the winners, not most *fit* but those who can adapt to change.   It's always sad when things like this happens, but the music industry is very different now.  




That would mean the magazine should stop trying to get one copy or two at Barnes and Nobles, a place that you and I don't bother with anymore since one day they have something and the next month, they don't. It's the reason why people are shopping from the internet ... you can get what you want, instead of the Stones telling you otherwise!
 
Those magazines, would/could/should consider digital subscriptions, but I rather doubt I would get one, only to see 5 lines about Peter Hammill and 3 lines about this and that, and then 27000 lines about Scorpions and Iron Maiden! And none about Anglagaard and Banco!
 
I can understand the need for the big names and such to help sell the thing, but in the end, the editorial side of it all ... is lacking, and mostly done by folks that don't even listen to prog. Heck, the Coffee House alone, is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more prog than that magazine EVER was!
2017/01/20 23:21:19
sharke
I used to buy Metal Hammer and Kerrang! when I was younger. Loved Metal Hammer. Think a band I was in around '89 even got a mention in it (mainly because we supported Energetic Krusher, lol). Happy times. Magazines were often the only place you could find out news and view photos of your favorite bands. No just going online and Googling stuff. 
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