Published
Wed, Mar 7, 2018, 17:12
- The weekly title is going online-only.
British music magazine NME will no longer publish in print.
The magazine tried to save its print edition in 2015 by making it free, though their ad sales failed to meet rising production costs.
"Our move to free print has helped propel the brand to its biggest ever audience on NME.com," said Paul Cheal, the music director at NME publisher Time Inc UK. "But it is in the digital space where effort and investment will focus to secure a strong future for this famous brand."
NME will still print special editions sporadically, and they'll replace weekly cover stories with a new digital franchise called the Big Read.
The news follows last month's announcement that the private equity group Epiris would buy Time Inc UK from US media group Meredith Corporation. Meredith Corporation had only just completed its $2.8 billion purchase of Time Inc in January.
Founded in 1952, NME was the best-selling British music newspaper of the '70s, when it notably followed the rise of punk rock. It remained one of the most influential rock and pop publications in the world into the '90s and '00s. In 2015, they shifted their focus to a mainstream audience, and when they launched their free print edition, their first cover star was Rihanna.