My Cunt.

Fucking hell Tart, get with the programme.

In the NME’s case, its print circulation has dropped something like 20% over the last couple of years, but its website is phenomenally successful. But that still doesn’t get it off the hook in my opinion, because the reason it does so well online is that it turns every-fucking-thing that happens in the music world into a news story. It’s a slave to the Google Newsbots over any kind of community of readers. But if the NME management are interested in numbers, then billing themselves as ‘the world’s fastest music news service’ was probably a wise move.

Pitchfork on the other hand, is quality over quantity, but has also done extremely well online. Look at how its traffic has shot up recently: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/pitchfork.com. Some of that may be down to a rebranding and redesign, but it’s established its reputation for well-informed, intelligent music criticism. (Even if I rarely agree with its ratings), and its influence on those on-the-cusp bands is huge.

So there are two strategies here which both seem to be paying dividends: shovel tons of content online as fast as possible, or commission writing on what you and your audience consider to be the best music out there.

I’ll be damned if I know where that leaves bloggers, journalists or whatever we choose to call ourselves.

ps Thanks for putting me in the “old pro” category but I actually put myself more in the blogger camp these days, though I have a way to go especially when it comes to
things like posting regularly enough.

Here.

There’s some good stuff in the restaurant review in the guardian today about appropriate names, including the fact that durex’s head of PR in France is a Mme Hardon