It’s been an overly bizarre day for major players in the media realm …
It’s been an overly bizarre day for major players in the media realm. First, Playboy announces it will no longer be publishing nudes (the fuck!?) and now Pitchfork — the online indie bible that basically tells hip-cats in every city how to act and think in regards to music — has been bought by major media group Condé Nast.
By its own admission, Condé Nast is “is a premier media company renowned for producing the highest quality content for the world's most influential audiences.” The group is responsible for some of the most popular titles in print and online, including GQ, Vogue, Wired, Details, Architectural Digest and The Rooster (NO, we kid, but they can start the offers whenever … we’re game).
What this means for Pitchfork, and its live events in Chicago and Paris, is yet to be seen, but it will likely push the site into what its most fervent followers will call “selling out,” while it grasps at other demographics to grow the site's overall reach. In an email to staff, Condé Nast CEO Bob Sauerberg says the move “reinforces our commitment to building Condé Nast’s premium digital network, focusing on distinctive editorial voices and engaging high-value millennial audiences.”
Millennials, it’s always about the millennials.
The unfortunate side effect of this type of buy-out is that sometimes, genuine opinions on things tend to get thrown out of the window in lieu of pleasing advertisers. There's going to be tighter restrictions on the type of content editors and writers are able to put out — we're guessing. But most casual readers of Pitchfork likely won’t notice any changes, if there are any. Hypothetically, though, will a Pitchfork editor be so inclined to give Beyoncé a bad review on her new album if Pepsi is an advertiser in GQ? Hmm …
But that’s, like, our opinion, man …
So the world goes.
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