Jonah Weiner, a former writer for the former music magazine Blender has written a superb piece for Slate on the demise of music magazines. I used to subscribe to Blender (for about two years between 2005/06/07), and – for all its hints at Maxim-esque boneheadedness – it was a fun and funny, whimsical mag – the type that could run stories titled 20 Biggest Record Company Screw-ups Of All Time, and still have you reading at number 14.
But now Blender is gone, and in his piece Weiner suggests a few reasons why.
Reading it, and reading those reasons ("What about features and interviews, where music journalists get access to stars that their online counterparts can only dream of? ... Artists big and medium give music magazines less of themselves than ever.") I couldn't help feeling (as someone who's been inside the proverbial sausage factory) that sports magazines – and you know who I'm talking about – are doomed to exactly the same sad fate for exactly the same sad reasons.