X-Ray, the magazine spin-off from London music radio station Xfm, will up its frequency to monthly next week, writes Ruth Addicott.
Sales of the first issue are said to be over 54,000 – exceeding initial targets – and not far behind NME, which reported a January-June ABC of 72,057.
X-Ray covers a wide range of music, including established artists and new bands, and aims to reflect the tone and personality of the radio station.
It also features regular columns and reviews from Xfm DJs Ricky Gervais, Christian O’Connell and Zo’ Ball.
Editor Rich Sutcliffe said he believed X-Ray had impacted on NME but claimed there was enough room in the market for both titles. “The two magazines can happily exist side by side. NME is a news-led weekly, X-Ray is a bit of a different animal,” he told Press Gazette. “We may have taken a few of their readers, but I don’t see why the two can’t sit happily together.”
X-Ray will also face competition from Future’s new music magazine, Bang, but is hoping to increase its readership further with the station’s plans for national expansion and through the Xfm website, which claims to attract more than 170,000 unique users a month.
The title is produced on behalf of Xfm by Swinstead Publishing. Sutcliffe has spent the past two years as publishing director of the company’s other titles, Sleazenation and Jockey Slut.
Ruth Addicott
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