The popular music press in the UK has undergone a number of important changes since the
mid-1990s. These changes are due to a variety of factors including the emergence and
proliferation of high-production glossy niched monthly titles, the fragmentation and
over-saturation of the market for consumer music titles, the bureaucratic restructuring of music
magazines, the occupational re-evaluation of the music journalism profession and an increasingly
PR-led industry climate. What all this has meant is that the space devoted to, and the access
required for, ‘immersion reporting’ – the New Journalism
touchstone which informed the music press through the 1970s and 1980s – has been
greatly reduced, resulting in a refocusing of resources and the once autonomous
‘personality writer’ being superseded by a single branded magazine identity.
The article draws on interviews with music journalists, editors, editors-in-chief and press
officers as well as participant observation in music magazines, all conducted as part of the
author's PhD research at the University of Westminster.
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