Folding magazines: Observer Music Monthly

If you picked up the most recent edition of the Observer Music Monthly, you probably won't be surprised to hear that the title is being axed. It's going down as part of a redesign of its parent title for early next year. (Sports and Women are also going; the food title remains. There was a brief period when the Sports Monthly was being sold in its own right on newsstands, if memory serves.)

It's a shame, as the title was pretty good - anything that provides a regular home for Paul Morley to write about music has to be a good thing. Sure, it did tend a little towards the sort of world where your taste would be defined by the judges of the Mercury shortlist, but it also, frequently, remembered that just because music is important, you don't have to always take it too seriously. It'll be missed. But, if I'm honest, I tended to read it because it came for free with my Guardian subscription.