IPC’s music weekly, NME, is to reveal a new look and new editorial sections in next week’s magazine, just eight months after its last redesign.
New features in the magazine include tracing the influences of a modern album in a section called Roots, and a questionnaire for artists encouraging them to talk in-depth about music they love and loathe.
The new look will also see changes to existing features, such as expanding the gig guide and new band profiles.
The magazine announced a revamp in July last year, when it made changes that to allow more reader interaction, such as a weekly planner and a “your photos” section to go along side the letters page.
Editor Conor McNicholas said: ‘NME’s audience are fast-moving music fans who live at the cutting edge of media culture and media development. As such it’s vital the NME continues to develop with them and produce the magazine that’s completely right for the time.
‘This refresh allows us to further focus on the content of the paper our readers love most as well as introduce a fresh, clean design that shows off the best of NME’s iconic photography and music journalism.’
NME’s print circulation is 64,033, significantly less than the quarter-million it sold in the 1970s and down 12 per cent in the last year. The website, however, has an ABCe of 1,824,038 unique users.
Publishing director Paul Cheal said: ‘NME magazine continues to sit right at the heart of our fast-evolving brand. This refresh work will further enhance NME’s credibility as the essential weekly for passionate music fans while the new editorial franchises will make it an even more engaging read.’
The first issue showcasing the new design runs alongside a partnership between indie band Coldplay and NME to give away a collectable seven-inch vinyl of the band’s comeback single Violet Hill – the only physical release of the single. It also comes with a double A-side track A Spell A Rebel Yell, that will only ever appear with the NME.
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