'Rolling Stone' debuts a leaner look today
By Peter Johnson, USA Today
The day that die-hard fans of Rolling Stone have dreaded -- when short articles, lists and factoids replace thoughtful, 10,000-word think pieces in the bible of rock 'n' roll -- arrives today.
That's when the latest issue of Rolling Stone hits newsstands, revamped by new managing editor Ed Needham, formerly of youthful magazine FHM.
The 129-page issue features alternative rock group and critical darlings The Vines on the cover, a brighter, punchier look inside and a whopping 101 reviews of the latest compact discs in the back of the magazine.
That's a definite nod to upstart Blender, says Andy Pemberton, editor of the 410,000-circulation monthly. He notes that Rolling Stone used to review about 25 CDs a month compared with his magazine's 200. Now they're closer, ''and it's no coincidence. This is a major editorial shift because of the perceived threat of Blender,'' says Pemberton, 33.
Needham, 38, looks at the fourfold increase in music reviews -- British pop band Coldplay gets four stars for its Rush of Blood to the Head CD -- as ''just common sense.''
''The No. 1 music magazine ought to practice a kind of top-drawer service in terms of what music has been released in the past two weeks,'' Needham says. Rolling Stone's circulation is 1.3 million, but newsstand sales are down 16% in the past year.
Needham says shorter articles have as much to do with readers' lifestyles -- ''people just don't have as much time to read'' -- as it does with the depressed ad environment, which dictates less editorial space.
He hopes to publish longer pieces at some point, but it's doubtful Rolling Stone will ever return to the days when writers such as Hunter S. Thompson and P.J. O'Rourke, whose names still grace the masthead but whose prose isn't expected back, were pretty much given free rein on story length.
Needham says he never finds an hour to devote to a single magazine. ''I see some fantastic stories, and I think, 'I'll take a look later,' but that 'later' never comes.''
Samir Husni, 49, a University of Mississippi magazine professor, is impressed by the new look but wonders whether it will turn off core readers.
Already, he says, some of his students are complaining about shorter pieces -- the last edition had only two stories that ran longer than two pages -- saying they can get that elsewhere. ''They don't like the sound bites. They're saying, 'What do I need this for when I'm already getting it in Maxim?' ''