Because 16 million page views a month and half a million print impressions is so niche.
With the big guys dropping left, right, and center, (not to mention for your dad, your
underage girlfriend, and countless others), the strong are huddling together for a long winter, and throwing one more shovelful of dirt over the coffin of the “independent” media world.
[via Advertising Age:]
The Chicago-based indie empire has opted to let the folks at Fader Media into its exclusive club, via a new strategic content and ad sales partnership… The emerging music and culture brands are joining forces for an extensive advertising and sponsorship relationship across print, online, festivals, events and unique content exchanges.
It used to be such a bright, shiny prospect, that internet thing. We'd all live in the long tail utopia where your particular interests would be met by a message board hoard of thousands beckoning you into their ultra specific, sequestered fold. Anyway, the tail theory was chopped down to size, they're calling the recession like it is, and we're enjoying the unique pleasure of witnessing traditional media scramble to catch up to the new harmony outlined above between a print/marketing company and online media.
Because this is not the same as the time we saw Buzznet buy Stereogum; that's the ol' major-buys-you-up-you-cash-out trick.
Of course, this development could result in completely benign alterations to the media fabric as we know it, (attractive people at the Pitchfork Festival! Better writing at Fader!), and only time can tell the extent to which the two will become bedfellows. Until then, assume the worst, and start hunting for some other fail-safe medium of information exchange from which to launch your independent revolution. Mine has something to do with strapping iPhone to cats and teaching them to teleport.
