Following the launch on October 1, 2008, of NoDepression.com, now finds that it has to make a further tough decision regarding the format of its publication.

Publisher, Kyla Fairchild, said in a statement yesterday:

"While traffic to the website has been great and the response positive, we have determined that it is impossible to bring in enough revenue to support our basic business expenses, the largest chunk of that being the editorial budget. We have soldiered on for as long as we can, but are left with no choice but to discontinue the editorial budget at the present time."

While the decision is tinged with sadness, No Depression will not vanish completely.

The statement continues …………………….

"At this point the best option that we can envision is to create a No Depression community website where we will pass the torch to our readers. While our writers will continue to bring their unique expertise to the community site via regular blogging and forum discussions, we hope that No Depression may continue on as a meeting place where fans of roots music connect and share information with each other, our writers, and the artists behind the music they love."

Readers are invited to submit blogs, photos and videos via the "Connect" tab that has been added to the NoDepression.com website. Any posting will have an opportunity of being featured on the main community page, which will be updated often. The website will continue to be updated on a daily basis with a record or live review and links to the best content on the community site.

The full statement is available online.

Everyone who becomes a member of the No Depression community by next Friday, March 6, will be entered in a drawing, and two lucky winners will each receive a copy of the first No Depression bookazine signed by Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck, an ND T-shirt of your choice, 10 ND back issues, two ND compilation CDs, and the Best Of No Depression anthology.

They will continued to publish online, and have announced a major overhaul of their web presence for later this month.

No Depression has also announced a partnership with The University of Texas Press to release a twice yearly “bookazine” in print form, marketed through bookstores and online booksellers each Spring and Fall. The format will be 8.5” x 11” paperback.

The first issue will be October 2008 with a cover feature on Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet. Other pieces focus on the music of The Infamous Stringdusters, Sierra Hull and Crooked Still among others.

Founders and long-time editors Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock will steer the new print version, and promise the same sort of long-form essays in the semiannual bookazine, which will feature all new content in each issue. Many familiar contributors from the former version of ND will be on board as well.

This first issue (No Depression #75) runs 144 pages and will sell for $19.95.

The publishers note a 64% drop in ad revenue over the past two years and the declining numbers of copies sold at retail outlets as primary in their decision to cease publication. The first issue of No Depression came in September 1995.

The current (March/April) issue contains a letter from the publishers to subscribers, which can also be read online. They expand a bit on their reasons for shutting down the presses, including the anxiety within the music industry during this period of uneasy transition, and the shrinking of the market for music in general.

That community is, as they say, in transition. In this evolving downloadable world, what a record label is and does is all up to question. What is irrefutable is that their advertising budgets are drastically reduced, for reasons we well understand. It seems clear at this point that whatever businesses evolve to replace (or transform) record labels will have much less need to advertise in print.

All in all, the letter shows an admirable – though understandably grudging – acceptance of reality, and may sadly be the first among many such letters we will read within the acoustic/folk/bluegrass community over the next few years. That said, the following quote seems a bit over the top:

Whatever the potentials of the web, it cannot be good for our democracy to see independent voices further marginalized. But that’s what’s happening. The big money on the web is being made, not surprisingly, primarily by big businesses.

Just as it is in every other aspect of the economy. Let’s shed a tear for the loss of No Depression, but democracy seems to be on a solid footing.