Music Magazine, Blender, is officially closing its doors, and laying off 30 people according to AdAge.

The current April issue with American Idol’s Kelly Clarkson will be its last.

The decision was told to staff this morning. Alpha Media Group’s last remaining magazine is Maxim, which will have its editorial staff integrated for its print and digital employees.

CEO Stephen Duggan commented, “Since 2001, Blender has provided unmatched music coverage and entertainment news in its unique voice to a profoundly dedicated audience of music enthusiasts. We are particularly grateful to the sales team and to the tremendously talented editorial staff for their hard work and commitment to Blender.”

Anxiety said:

you're celebrating too?

bboy87 said:

hell yes! that rag was crap!

I know what it's like to work for a magazine when it folded and to have the entire staff get called into the conference room and be told the bad news. Not fun.

Thought the mag had a promising start with in-depth reviews and a certain wit but then the advertising and publicists hijacked that shit.

Bring back Smash Hits!

Dred said:

awww, i miss smash hits.

I don't think Smash Hits is coming back. I thought that Blender was a little too snarky at times, but it most likely was a victim of the bad economy in general and the changing newspaper and magazine industry in particular. If you've been to any newsstands lately, you'll notice that nearly all of the magazines are pretty thin these days, and the ad money just isn't there anymore. Plus who needs a weekly or monthly music rag when you have daily blogs that cover the same thing at much lower cost and broader reach. Not to mention the immediate feedback from readers you can get online.

I have a subscription (not sure how much longer I had issues for) but I was getting increasingly bored with it.

I have one year left on my subscription. Correction: I had one year left.

I'm actually happy about this cause I have a subscription with Blender and I couldn't wait for it to end so I'm excited that I don't have to tell them to end it, they're ending it for me. The quality of the magazine has been going down the drain for a while now. This also means one less magazine I have to worry about taking up space in my room.
[Edited 3/26/09 20:59pm]

Yeah, I know a few people who work there. Nothing to celebrate about

I like Blender

LOL!

thekidsgirl said:

Yeah, but you also like Buffy the Vampire Slayer dvds and 21 Nights...

ThreadBare said:

Yeah! I'm coooool! Quit hatin!

ThreadBare said:

.....and Spice Girls


plus she has a Zune

This mag was fun but I didn't buy this months because I noticed how super thin and article absent it was.

I liked when they would break down a major discography over 2 pages.

They had some good exclusive candid Q&A's

I was just saying to someone the other month how it is nice to read a magazine that wasn't focused on ONE GENRE like every other music magazine. The closest thing you could say about Blender was that it was a "POP" magazine but it wasn't exactly Tiger Beat either

"Blender" is the music mag "Rolling Stone" should be. I'm going to miss it.

Perhaps featuring jokes like Kelly Clarkson on the cover was a bad move on their part.

thekidsgirl said:

me too. i will miss it. i really enjoyed getting it every month.

meow85 said:

Timmy84 said:

Honestly, if they wanted to take a stab at that "serious music magazine" thing, they should've realized that quite a few serious musicians and singers and just plain ol' music fans could give two shits about AI products like her.

bboy87 said:

BEAT IT! youuuu

I actually quite liked Blender. I got my girlfriend to subscribe to it and then she sent me issues to England. It was going downhill though with far too many 'pop' artists on the cover. Their reviews section was often spot on though. I'll miss it actually.

meow85 said:

As opposed to Zac Efron, shirtless, on Rolling Stone. They did dote over Kelly a bit much.

VinnyM27 said:

I thought everyone accepted that certain things had to be on the cover of magazines sometimes, but what really mattered was the writing. I thought Blender's schitt was spot on most of the time.

VinnyM27 said:

RS has been doing that crap for years, and it's no better when they do it. RS is coasting on what remains of its cred, but I doubt it can last long.


Though I will admit, I was highly appreciative of RS first Backstreet Boys' pants down picture.

meow85 said:

But that's because you're a Backstreet Boy fan so you have no excuse.