No Depression, which billed itself as “The Last Alt. Country (Whatever That Is) Bimonthly,” will cease publication with its 75th issue in May-June.  Although there has been an apparent surge of interest in Americana and roots music in the years since the magazine was launched in 1995, its publishers say they can’t cover the print and distribution costs largely due to a marked decline in advertising revenue. 

In the “Hello Stranger” column that graces page 2 of the magazine’s March-April issue, co-publishers Grant Alden, Peter Blackstock and Kyla Fairchild wrote:  “… because we’re a niche title we are dependent upon advertisers who have a specific reason to reach our audience.  That is: record labels.  We, like many of our friends and competitors, are dependent upon advertising from the community we serve.”

Unfortunately, as the three accurately point out, that community is in a state of transition.  With music downloads today far exceeding CD sales, the role of labels is somewhat in flux and their advertising budgets have been sharply reduced.  “The decline of brick and mortar music retail means we have fewer newsstands on which to sell our magazine, and small labels have fewer venues that might embrace and hand-sell their music.  Ditto for independent bookstores,” the publishers also point out.  They note that new postal regulations that favor big publishers, as well as the consolidation of paper manufacturers, have also placed new cost burdens on small publishers.  “The cumulative toll of those forces makes it increasingly difficult for all small magazines to survive,” they continue.  “Whatever the potentials of the Web, it cannot be good for our democracy to see independent voices further marginalized.  But that’s what’s happening.”

That said, No Depression’s publishers have vowed to continue to maintain a Web presence.  In a letter posted on the magazine’s Web site on Feb. 20, Blackstock noted that he and his colleagues are seeking to determine “just how we might fit what we do into the ever-shifting sands of the Web… Hopefully, we can contribute, and not just by being there, but by being good, which seems to me to be the real challenge to Internet media today.”   

In a Feb. 25 missive under the heading “Grant’s Rants,” co-publisher Grant Alden noted that the outpouring of support and good ideas that they have received since announcing plans to cease printing No Depression, have prompted them both “to explore a wider range of options than we had, perhaps, considered” for enhancing its Web site and to elicit ideas from their readers.