If you subscribe to Billboard magazine - or have perused a copy at the newstands recently - you will have noticed that the Top Bluegrass Albums chart has disappeared from the print edition of the magazine.

This weekly chart, along with a number of others, has been relegated to the Billboard web site which paid subscribers can access by obtaining a free password from the publishers. Unfortunately, the added exposure and credibility afforded to our music by the inclusion of the chart may be diminished by this change, which it has been suggested was due in part to a lack of advertising support within the bluegrass market.

Though not stated in such stark terms, Billboard’s Senior Chart Manager Wade Jessen did intimate to us that business decisions prompted the change.

“The redesign of the chart well in the print product moves several of our specialty charts to the websites, and was initiated in order to better balance our advertising-to-editorial/chart page ratio.”

He also said that full color PDFs of the online chart page with graphics would be available for a fee to use in creating publicity materials or mementos of chart success. For the page graphics, contact Gordon Murray in the Billboard research department at 646-654-4633.