{"id":3113,"date":"2012-04-30T11:11:03","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T18:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=3113"},"modified":"2012-05-01T13:25:45","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T20:25:45","slug":"pitchfork-uses-old-media-model-for-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/04\/30\/pitchfork-uses-old-media-model-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitchfork uses old media model for success"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL (CUP)\u2014In a world where even the red, flowing Rolling Stone emblem is having trouble moving magazine copies off the rack, Mark Richardson is feeling optimistic about the future of music journalism.<\/p>\n

Editor-in-chief of Pitchfork, the world\u2019s most visited independent music writing website, Richardson\u2019s at the helm of a ship that is retaining many tricks of the old media\u2019s trade.<\/p>\n

Pitchfork maintains tight editorial control, doesn\u2019t have comment sections on its articles, and doesn\u2019t tweet back at its followers. In many ways, it\u2019s still a magazine, rather than a website. And yet it\u2019s the de facto taste-making music site of the 21st century. A Pitchfork review can make or break a musical career.<\/p>\n

Despite living and breathing music and music journalism, it took Richardson several years to refine his writing style. Then, in 1998, he went from odd writing jobs to writing steadily for the then-three-year-old website.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it was very, very small back then, it was just this tiny thing,\u201d he says. \u201cSo when I talk about writing for Pitchfork in the \u201990s, it was just a really different world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Graphic by Eric Bent\/The Link<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fast-forward through the last\u00a0decade and newspapers and magazines are now in precarious financial positions, while the internet has taken over. Pitchfork itself is getting more than four million unique visitors a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrint still has some advantages visually, with tactile experiences, and longer pieces, and those type of things,\u201d says Richardson. Still, he acknowledges that the newspaper\u2019s heyday is unlikely to return, but he holds out hope for the industry, explaining that it simply has yet to figure out a new, more profitable, business model.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like there\u2019s a possibility that there\u2019s something looming that we haven\u2019t quite envisioned\u00a0yet, that will be of higher quality than things are now… At least, I hope so,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Pitchfork\u2019s success story is certainly refreshing to online journalists hoping to find some work in an industry of temporary gigs and unpaid internships. To them, Richardson has only one bit of advice: patience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you love to write, and especially if you love writing about art and culture, there\u2019s nothing wrong with doing that part-time, for months or years,\u201d he says, pointing out that publications will be willing to pay writers money for their writing when they\u2019re good enough to get noticed.<\/p>\n

That being said, the one question every journalist is looking for an answer is simple; what does one have to do to get a job in the business? The answer, according to Richardson, isn\u2019t all that surprising: intern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not too much of a mysterious process, other than we\u2019re looking for people that want nothing more than to be involved in the world of music journalism, and also seem like they are going to work really hard,\u201d he notes. \u201cMaking it clear that you want to do whatever you can to help is the best thing. Those are the interns you tend to notice more, pay attention to, and then eventually want to help out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL (CUP)\u2014In a world where even the red, flowing Rolling Stone emblem is having trouble moving magazine copies off the rack, Mark Richardson is feeling optimistic about the future of music journalism. Editor-in-chief of Pitchfork, the world\u2019s most visited independent music writing website, Richardson\u2019s at the helm of a ship that is retaining many tricks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-april-11-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t