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Metal Maniacs and Metal Edge are shutting their doors. Details are scarce, but evidently Zenbu Media, the publisher of the sister publications, found them insufficiently profitable. (See story here.) The loss of these magazines is profound. Prior to their demise, the range of American metal magazines, from mainstream to underground, went like this: Revolver, Metal Edge, Decibel, Metal Maniacs, and smaller publications like Pit and Oaken Throne. (The recent passing of Adrian Bromley (RIP) felled Unrestrained!, leaving Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles as Canada’s main metal magazine.)
Metal Maniacs was a tireless champion of the underground. Given the economy, it is unlikely that a substitute will arise. In recent years, Metal Edge transformed from a hairspray-fest, voting Britny Fox and Firehouse best new band of 1988 and 1991, respectively, to a real metal magazine; editor Phil Freeman and his writers were to credit. When MetalSucks reported on this story, one commenter pointed out that websites like it (and perhaps this one as well) are helping kill print. Let’s hope that’s not true. Digital media and print each have different advantages. Amazon’s Kindle won’t kill books anytime soon.
I’m really proud to have been a part of Metal Edge’s turnaround, it was great fun. The mag was really hitting its stride over the last five issues, so the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Losing Unrestrained (Bromley RIP), Metal Maniacs, and Metal Edge in a matter of a couple months is a huge blow. Metal’s arguably the only form of popular music left where the print media still actually matters somewhat, magazines have always helped galvanize the metal community…metal fans have always been staunchly traditional, they buy the CDs (and not iTunes), they want the full package (album, artwork, lyrics), they buy the magazines and _keep_ them for future reference. And although we all knew metal certainly wasn’t immune to what the rest of the music industry’s going through, I sort of (naively, foolishly) thought it would last a little longer.
When all’s said and done, is Decibel going to be the last great North American metal mag standing?
I too wrote for Metal Edge. To me, it wasn’t just another writing gig – I really enjoyed it. As I had previously wrote for a number of Hip-Hop publications, etc, I found it both stimulating and challenging – I was finally writing about the music that I was passionate about. I will continue to be in awe of the writings of many of my comrades as they really pushed me to hone my craft – Adrien being one of them. Let’s hope another publication(s) pop up in the near future.
I never read Metal Edge (not because I avoided it… I just never got around to it), but Metal Maniacs was a great magazine. I’m sad to hear that it’s closing.
I also hope online media isn’t killing print media. That said, I don’t make a lot of money, and when I”m setting up my budget, magazines are the first thing to get cut. Part of the reason I’m willing to do that is because I get so much information online. Music magazines in particular get cut, because reading them makes me want to spend more money, which I can’t afford to do. I hope that doesn’t sound ungenerous–for what it’s worth, I never pirate music–but it’s an unfortunate fact.
I was talking to a former journalist at a party a couple months ago, and he suggested that print newspapers were facing a similar problem. Does anybody know more about this?
Kindle isn’t killing books, but book publishers are hurting pretty badly.
It’s been a loooong time since I read Metal Maniacs, early 90’s to be exact. From what I remember then it was a pretty decent magazine, even when Borivoj Krgin was ripping into bands.
Shame to see it go.
Thanks for the kind words. I had a great time editing Edge, and I only regret that I didn’t have enough time to turn around a lot of the people who still thought it was an 80s throwback or a late-90s/early-00s nu-metal/screamo fanzine (what it was right before I came on board). I tried to cover the full gamut of metal; putting the Black Dahlia Murder on the cover turned a fair amount of heads, and our final issue, out in early/mid-March, will feature a cover story on Isis. I published the best writers I could find, tried to publish articles that said more than “So-and-so has a new album out,” and would have continued to do so.
Without saying too much, I will dispute the assertion that the mags were unprofitable. They were profitable – our ad revenue was actually going up in recent months. Unfortunately, we also had outside investors, and given conditions on Wall Street, they bailed out.
Any chance these mags will be picked up by someone else or is that even being talked about?
I’ve heard rumors but don’t want to say anything more than “I’ve heard rumors.”
Newspapers are hurt even harder by the Internet, partially b/c they mostly just report the news, without the fancy layout that makes magazines physically appealing. See this article:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/12/22/081222ta_talk_surowiecki?yrail
Whoa, Adrian Bromley passed? I remember reading so much of his stuff over the years. In fact, I remember his name more than I remember what publications that he wrote for…..I think he wrote for Chart (?) and maybe Meat (? Now there’s a long gone metal mag) and maybe Exclaim. But I always enjoyed his writing….you knew he was the resident metalhead, but he had *great* taste, he didn’t just push the latest band or whatever, those bands had to be good.
Yet another sore sight from recent economic repercussions. I agree that there’s forever room for publications, magazines, newspapers, books and all. But again, maybe that’s just an assumption made from personal hope and desire.
I used to buy both Metal Forces and Metal Hammer years back. Metal Forces folded in the 90’s I think. The Metal Forces crew mostly now write for Blabbermouth so it’ll be interesting to see where the staff. Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs lasting as long as they did is very good going. Many mags don’t even survive a year.
I write reviews for a metal/punk/rock webzine yet still read the magazines. I have mixed feelings about the possiblity websites are killing mags. I read far more in a mag in one sitting than I do on a computer screen.
By the way, has Decibel’s circulation decreased? I haven’t seen it on newsstands here for almost a year. What I really liked about Metal Maniacs was that they supported and publicized fanzines.