I Am Not Bothered By Pitchfork’s Likely Demise
Last month, Condé Nast announced they would fold the once-highly-influential music publication, Pitchfork, into GQ magazine (of all the possible places). Given the vast differences between the two publications’ topics, business models, and small overlapping readership, it will be a strange merge.
For years, Pitchfork, for me, was the go-to Website to find all the rage in the indie and experimental music universe. It then became a source of some uncharted territories such as hip-hop in my then-limited music-listening landscape. The reviews, the rating system, what’s hot or not and their year-end lists gave meaning to my days, knowledge with which I dared to have opinions, and find ways to friendships I was otherwise not welcome. But that era is long dead and gone, and the remnants of those valued memories are not worth losing long hours of leisure time over.
Whether it was the acquisition by Condé Nast or the CEO and founder, Ryan Schreiber’s cumulative greed throughout the years, journalist tears did not subside for days after hearing the news. The reaction I noticed, however, and should not speak for everyone, was different at best among the old readers.
Regardless of what led to this rather humiliating decision by Anna Wintour, the…
