pitchfork.com/news/q-magazine-to-close-after-34-years

“The British music monthly is the latest to shutter as the pandemic hits the media economy.

Q magazine, the stalwart British music monthly, has published its final issue. The title failed to attract a buyer after parent company Bauer Media listed it for sale in May due to pandemic restructuring. The magazine, to which I and other Pitchfork writers have contributed, was founded in 1986, with a focus on rock, pop, and alternative music, reported via intimately detailed features and an expansive reviews section. It had also held an annual awards show in London since 1990.

In his final Q editor’s letter, Ted Kessler says he implemented various survival measures “in an extremely challenging print market” since his appointment in 2017, before “COVID-19 wiped all that out.” He describes the closure as “an inevitability nobody could’ve predicted as recently as March.” The final issue compiles “greatest-hits” interviews with artists including David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, and Prince. “Hopefully, these final issues will provide inspiration for someone canny enough to fill that huge Q-shaped hole on the newstand,” Kessler writes.”

not surprising

a lot of these publications that rely on print gonna die

i never read q tbh.. it's sad for the jobs and s*** that will go from things like this tho.

That’s beyond poignant, to be frank.

They were the most loyal Weezer fans I’d ever known... they’d always give them 4/5.

i wonder what other uk mags are gonna go

it had already got hard.. look at how many mainstream mags like NME had already folded before covid.

man, by the end they literally couldn't give NME away for free (and they tried with the clothing store collab)

Remember that free music mag Fly? That was cool.

I do need to read those interviews with Prince and Joni again, though.

All this history gets lost and then the canon doesn’t retain it and we’re in this weird music industry landscape where every day has some unprecedented accomplishment put against a past we lost record of, it sucks

Oh, yeah, Fly...
Well, the era will have genuinely ended if they manage to close NME as well.

It indeed does... well said.

@pneumonia

“British Music Monthly”

What’s funny behind that if I may ask?

Didn’t really read Q but sad to see them closing.

only ever read their interviews/features for the 1975 but seemed like a good publication, sad

The real sad thing is that they have no real archival system. These guys were on the ground floor for rock music being changed for the last time. It’s like a museum or library being burned down.

?

lmao you might hate uk rap but britain still one of the most legendary music scenes ever. objectively.

That’s upsetting.
Played a big part during the britpop era, had some iconic covers and interviews.

NME isn't done, it's just full digital

NME been done since 2018 fam. that's what i mean that whole industry already on the edge.

they still have a website

wild. when I was like 13 and the kids in my school were reading Harry Potter I was reading Q magazine and NME lol