No Depression magazine announced that the May/June issue will be its last. Explaining their decision to shutter, co-owners Peter Blackstock, Grant Alden and Kyla Fairchild issued a statement citing a decline in record company ad revenue, diminished brick and mortar retail space, rising newsprint costs and postage increases, and the overall economy.
“What makes this especially painful and particularly frustrating is that our readership has not significantly declined, our newsstand sell-through remains among the best in our portion of the industry, and our passion for and pleasure in the music has in no way diminished. We still have shelves full of first-rate music we’d love to tell you about.
“And we have taken great pride in being one of the last bastions of the long-form article, despite the received wisdom throughout publishing that shorter is better. We were particularly gratified to be nominated for our third Utne award last year.”
While I thought many of their reviews could have been a lot tougher, No Dep will be missed. Over the years, the mag spotlighted many Houston acts and institutions such as Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Mickey Newbury, the Hollisters, Little Joe Washington, Mando Saenz, Hayes Carll, Horseshoe, Jesse Dayton, Mary Cutrufello, Rodney Crowell, Joe Doucet, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Miss Leslie and the Juke-Jointers, Cactus Music and Video, the Infernal Bridegroom Productions play Speeding Motorcycle, and the Houston International Festival.
The owners say that while they plan to expand their Web site, “it will in no way replace the print edition.” – John Nova Lomax
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2008.
