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One Week To Live Dies In Print Thriving UK dance magazine ‘One Week To Live’ stopped printing hard copies suddenly last month, switching online entirely as they marked their 100th print edition. OWTL publisher George Crones told Skrufff the increasingly influential free magazine had failed to attract sufficient advertisers to continue publishing in print and said patterns in the way people consume media contributed to their demise. “One Week To Live was the largest dance music magazine in the UK distributing more copies in a month than ALL the other dance titles combined. Despite that, we didn’t feel we could increase our circulation fast enough for it to appeal to the larger advertising agencies,” George explained.
“More and more people are using the internet as their primary, and sometimes only, means of finding out about, consuming, purchasing and interacting with media,” he added, “I think we should have gone online sooner.” The Australian publisher claimed OWTL staff always got on well with rival dance mags (‘although that probably isn’t what you want to hear’) though predicted a bleak future for his paid-for former competitors. “Right now readers can get up-to-the-minute information online for free, so it is harder than ever to convince them to hand over their hard-earned money for a magazine that is weeks or months out of date before it hits the shelves,” he pointed out.
“And though it is not something they normally talk about, the paid-for UK dance titles have been steadily losing circulation for years. That trend can’t continue for much longer and still have those titles be sustainable, so at a certain point they will go digital as well,” he suggested. He also urged readers to check out the new online archive of ‘Word’ articles on the OWTL site featuring excerpts from dance history books like Matthew Collin’s Altered State and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton’s Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. “These and other books have given me a much better understanding of the history of the scene,” he said, “I think if anyone wants to get an understanding of the culture they would be a good place to start.” His advice came as Morrissey launched a brutally personal attack on the credentials of NME interviewer Tim Jonze, the journalist whose recent interview has sparked a vicious High Court battle between the former Smiths singer and NME and ex dance magazine editor Conor McNicolas. “Conor had assured (me) that Tim was their best writer. Talking behind his hands and in endless fidget, Tim accepted every answer I gave him with a schoolgirl giggle, and repeatedly asked me if I was shocked at how little he actually knew about music,” Morrissey claimed in the Guardian this week. “I told him that, yes, I was shocked. It was difficult for me to believe that the best writer from the "new" NME had never heard of the song Drive-in Saturday; I explained that it was by David Bowie, and Tim replied "oh, I don't know anything about David Bowie,” Morrissey alleged. http://www.morrissey-solo.com (Morrissey versus NME & Conor (& Tim) in full) http://www.oneweektolive.com
Article by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
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