NME CASE STUDY:

Genre: Traditionally just Indie / rock but now also includes other genres (hip hop / dance etc) thrown in for good measure but never pop music. Sales:/ readership
Currently around 23,924 per month. Declining ! NME and Q suffered sales declines of almost 20% year-on-year in a tough first six months of 2012 for the music magazine market. Guardian, 2012. It was recently announced that IPC Media, the publishers behind both NME and Uncut, would cut 150 jobs.

Background
The New Musical Express, popularly known by initialism NME, created by Theodore Smythson, is a music journalism publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. During the period 1972 to 1976, it was particularly associated with gonzo journalism (self-involved reporting), then became closely associated with punk rock through the writing of Tony Parsons. An online version of NME, NME.com, was launched in 1996. It is now the world's biggest standalone music site, with over 7 million users per month.

House Style: Traditionally associated with independent / punk and indie music scenes the NME aspires to show music artists as talented artists and often features classic artists on the cover. It respects musicians but also attempts to show the warts an all rock music lifestyles. It encourages fans to be part of this brand by encouraging them to go to gigs and read reviews of bands and artists
The fearless champion of new British music since the 1950s, it was the print equivalent of Radio 1s John Peel . Its move to an online platform is a result of declining sales and its website is much more popular with over 7 million unique visitors a month NMEs reputation is built on our ability to sniff out the best emerging artists, and its something we take very seriously indeed, he said. We all know that people spend less on actually purchasing music today than they did in the past. This means that with less money being pumped into the labels, theyre much more hesitant to sign bands. Couple this with the transient nature of music blog culture where people demand a new band every day, it becomes increasingly difficult to predict which artists are more than just a

flash in the pan. This is where NME becomes a vital filter, picking out the things worth listening to and championing them as our next great hopes. -Former NME deputy editor Mike Williams

Target audience profile

further links:
http://metro.co.uk/2012/09/26/nme-celebrates-60th-birthday-but-can-it-reclaim-its-formerglory-585284/ http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/latest-news/uk-music-magazines-see-drop-inreadership-118493 http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1145894/