In another chapter of the ongoing struggles for No Depression, publisher Kyla Fairchild has posted that operational expenses has forced the new website incarnation ” to discontinue the editorial budget at the present time.” In other words, no more original content, record reviews, interviews, and stories.
ND was THE editorial beacon for the growing alt.country/roots/Americana music scene between 1995 and 2008. Their print operations ended last June due to revenue slowdown from declining subscriptions and advertising. A new web site tobring content and news to fans and persue a different business model was announced at the 2000 Americana Music Association conference and was unveiled that October.
Fairchild states that NoDepression.com will continue as an online presence with more focus on community contributions to provide content. As indicated preciously, here is also plans to make its entire archive of 75 issues available online. (via the 9513)
As Americana music starts to move more into the mainstream with artist like Robert Plant and Allison Krauss winning Grammys and indy-popsters like Ben Kweller releasing country-tinged albums I hope some of that popularity finds its way to the publication that helped hold the many genre threads together for so long.
One little correction here. The revenue slowdown that forced No Depression out of print wasn’t due to declining subscriptions. There was as much or more demand for the magazine as ever, it was declining ad revenues due to the the pressures facing record labels that led us to cease publishing.
One of our community members posted this eloquent piece on the community site today. “The Silver Lining”
http://nodepression.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-silver-lining
Thanks Kyla. The post is corrected and I’ve joined the ND community.