NME music magazine case study

NME: Case Study

History: Originally known as the New Musical Express, NME is a music publication based in the United Kingdom publishing weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper then gradually moved more towards being known as a music magazine during the 1980’s. NME was the first British newspaper to feature a singles chart in its magazine and in the 1970’s became the bestselling British music magazine. During the period of 1072 to 1976 NME was particularly associated with ‘Gonzo Journalism’ then became more associated with punk rock due to the writing of the magazine from Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill. In 1996 an online version of NME ‘NME.com’ was launched and it is now the biggest music site with over 7 million users per month.

How it has developed: During the 1960’s was when NME was first seen in the newspaper world, the paper was edited by Andy Gray and frequently features bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. These artists were also seen at the NME Poll Winners Concert where famous artists would win awards based on the popularity they were getting from the magazine. Then in the 1970’s NME had strong competition from the ‘Melody Maker’ because NME struggled to keep pace with the development of Psychedelia and Rock particularly. In 1972 the magazine nearly faced closure from its editors IPC, Alan Smith was made editor and was given a short period of time by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure. As a result the paper's coverage changed quickly from an uncritical and rather reverential showbiz-oriented paper to something intended to be smarter, hipper, more cynical and funnier than any mainstream British music paper had previously been. This then gained the magazine’s reputation back to its original setting and continued this reputation further on into the 1980’s. The 80’s saw a first ever magazine featuring cassette tape issued in 1981 to users who ordered it at a cheap price. From March 1998 onwards the magazine was no longer printed on newsprint and was shifted to tabloid size full glossy colour covers. Then in May 2008 the magazine was given a redesign aimed at an older generation to give it more of an authoritive tone to attract more customers.

How is uses technology: Over the years NME has developed its technology to give people the most opportuinity to be able to read and discuss with others via the internet. Now, we see that NME has a Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and many other accounts where fans of the magazine can write to NME contributing to articles they would like to be seen in it and to generally give feedback on the publishers to see whether they enjoy it or not. NME has adapted so much that it even has an app which you can use on your mobile which is an online reader so you can read NME without having to buy a paper copy! This benefits NME because as long as the internet permits a person is able to read NME both anywhere in the world and for places where NME is not sold. NME’s huge adaptation to this can be seen as a way to give them a niche market advantage in the sense that not many other magazines might not use apps on phones and people will therefore change there regular reading to NME because it has that advantage which others may not have.