Why Can’t the U.S. Sustain a Vital Music Press?

Pitchfork’s probable demise smacks of sexism, corporate stupidity and a generation gap

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

Condé Nast’s decision last week to fold Pitchfork.com into GQ underscores American corporate media’s failure to provide music fans with vibrant journalism that also meets their financial objectives in the digital age.

Of course, such a void represents an opportunity for The Riff here on Medium to expand its reach.

What’s happened to Pitchfork is akin to 1980s indie bands (e.g., R.E.M., The Replacements) getting signed to a major label by the 1990s, and most of their fans think they sold out, and the resulting new music pales to the early albums.

Play it safe, homogenize, commercialize, make me puke.

All the free content swimming around the Internet makes it hard for any publisher to survive these days. I am as guilty as anyone grabbing my weekly fix of The Guardian’s music pieces that come at no charge through the transom.

Coinciding with the Pitchfork/GQ development is the imminent closing of ‘Sports Illustrated.’ What does that say about our society that such a brand only gets attention for…