Music Week hopes to take the long view

There's some changes in both staff and direction at Music Week, as Roy Greenslade reports:

The previous editor, Paul Williams, has become "head of business analysis", and Michael Gubbins has been brought in above him as "director of content."

Of much more significance is the development of an editorial strategy that recognises the changes in both the music industry and the media industry

This seems quite wise, but feels a little late - accepting that the web breaks news faster and that when people sit down with a publication, they're looking for something worth sitting down with.

The risk for Music Week is the outcome of taking a long, hard look at the music business is going to result in uncomfortable reading for the music business. And they're the key audience both for sales and advertising. It's going to be a tricky job to pull off, taking people's money while telling them they're going wrong.

But at least Music Week understands their pain:

[Gubbins] cannot be other than aware of its problematic print sales. In the years 1997/8 its ABC sale was 12,503. In 2009/10, that was down to 5,218, and is thought to have slipped further in recent months.

It can't help that the number of people working in the traditional industry has been tanking, can it?