Jazz Times was credited with 100,000 circulation in virtually all press accounts of its recent transfer of ownership -- which with annual subscription rate of nearly $24 per year suggests annual income from readership alone (there's income from ads, too) easily be in excess of $2 million dollars.But as I noted in my last posting, the circulation figure is not verified by the non-profit Audit Bureau of Circulation or anyone else. It comes from Jazz Times advertising department, which of course sells ads on the basis of how many eyeballs can be … [Read more...]
Short end of Jazz Times’ good news
The quick revival of magazine Jazz Times by Madavor Media is a good thing, but freelance contributors whose work has already been published are being told that they'll be paid only 50% of amounts due."Those checks are going out this week," according to an email sent by Lee Mergener, JT's editor-in-chief who is being retained during the transition in ownership, along with managing editor Evan Haga and two ad representatives. Mergner's memo continues, "Madavor only acquired the assets, not the liabilities, of the company, leaving JazzTimes' … [Read more...]
Jazz mag revived?
Jazz Times, the monthly which suspended publication in May, has been bought by Madavor Media and will print an August issue produced by its familiar staff and contributors, according to today's New York Times. Boston-based Madavor counts International Figure Skating, Volleyball and The Best of Northeast Golf among its "core titles," having acquired Doll, a long-established UK collector's periodical, in June 2008 and four regionally-oriented golf titles last September. … [Read more...]
Domino effect of JVC Jazz Fest failure on Jazz Times?
New speculation on the jazz magazine crisis: Having no summer advertorial supplements for JVC Jazz Festivals (which aren't happening) may have hugely hurt JT's seasonal revenues. How could the loss of three consecutive monthly multi-page inserts, all expenses paid for by the client, not shake a publication's income stream?Complete disclosure: I edited the JVC Jazz Festival program books in the 1990s, when they were inserts into Tower Records' free monthly magazine Pulse!, and for a year when JVC America, responsible for the Japanese owned … [Read more...]
“Big Three” jazz guitarists extended to a couple dozen
In his article on the collaboration of Jim Hall and Bill Frisell in the April issue of Jazz Times, Evan Haga refers to the "Big Three" of current jazz guitarists: Frisell, John Scofield and John McLaughlin.Much as I dig them (and Hall), that designation is a rather typical journalistic foreshortening of a field, relegating to a rich second tier such high-profile powerhouse contenders as Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, Larry Coryell, James "Blood" Ulmer, Vernon Reid, George Benson, Les Paul, Russell Malone, Al Di Meola, Kenny Burrell, Toninho Horta, … [Read more...]