The ever changing print media has further shifted towards the internet age as Spin Magazine’s parent company Spin Media was sold to Buzzmedia, a company who is behind numerous music and celebrity related web sites.
Photo credit is Alyssa Fried
Exact figures of the sale were not released, but previous publisher McEvoy Group purchased Spin for under $5 million in 2006. Buzzmedia acquired the 27-year old print magazine, website, iPad app Spin Play, as well as its live event business. It is reported Buzzmedia has plans on expanding SPIN’s digital staff to expand their online reach will expand but the print edition’s future is now in question.
The recession and losing readers to the internet has hurt SPIN as most print magazines. Over a decade ago, SPIN’s print edition’s circulation hit 530,000 monthly. In 2011, they cut down to 460,000. Then they went bimonthly, increasing the size of the magazine and further cut their base rate down to 350,000, which was also the minimum run guaranteed for advertisers.
Buzzmedia owns or sells advertising for popular music blogs Stereogum, Hype Machine and Idolator, as well as operates websites for such celebrities as Kim Kardashian. They acquired year-old dance-music magazine XLR8R this past May. It is believed through SPIN they have further access towards major advertisers such as Apple, Honda, ray-Ban and Anheuser-Busch Inbev.
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