After 26 years as the premier monthly magazine for alternative music, Spin is going bimonthly.
Starting with its March issue, Spin’s print edition will be published six times a year in a larger format, which the magazine says will allow it to run longer features and better showcase its photography.
After having its dimensions gradually shrink over the years, the revamped publication will measure 9½ inches by 12 inches, nearly the same size as its first issue in 1985, and be printed on heavier, higher-quality paper stock. (Its current size is 8⅞ inches by 10⅞ inches.)
At the same time that it reduces its frequency in print, Spin will continue to expand its presence online. In March the magazine introduced an iPad app, Spin Play, and it has also been developing various digital features
like a remix app for its dance-themed October issue.
In an interview, Devin Pedzwater, Spin’s brand creative director, said that stories could be spread between the magazine’s print and digital platforms, but that in
essence the Web would be the home for news and the magazine would feature more thematically driven coverage.
“If news breaks we will be able to break it online, but there is another side of music that isn’t so immediate,” Mr. Pedzwater said. “This feels more like a book than a magazine.”
With its shift to bimonthly publication, Spin will drop its rate base from 450,000 copies to 350,000.
Spin fired its editor and publisher in June in preparation for its expanded online role, but a spokeswoman said that there would be no major personnel changes with its latest change. Spin is published by Spin Media, whose parent company is the McEvoy Group, which also owns Chronicle Books and the Princeton Architectural Press.