Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music online magazine. Originally published in print in the UK from 1986 to 2020, it was inactive from 2020 until 2023. In 2023, Q was revived as an online publication. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series The Old Grey Whistle Test.[2] Q's final printed issue was published in July 2020, but began posting new articles to their website in 2023 before being fully relaunched in 2024.
Categories
Monthly
44,050 (ABC Jul – Dec 2015)[1]
Print and digital editions.
October 1986
July 2020
United Kingdom
London
English
Q was originally published by the EMAP media group and set itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing.[2] In the early years, the magazine was sub-titled "The modern guide to music and more". Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it would not be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Q's 200th edition, is that a single-letter title would be more prominent on newsstands.
In January 2008, EMAP sold its consumer magazine titles, including Q, to the Bauer Media Group.[3][4] Bauer put the title up for sale in 2020, alongside Car Mechanic, Modern Classics, Your Horse, and Sea Angler.[5][6][7] However, publication ceased in July 2020 as Kelsey Media decided to buy a number of non-music titles from Bauer (Sea Angler, Car Mechanics and Your Horse),[8] making the 28 July 2020 issue (Q415) the last to be published.[9] The end of the print version of Q was blamed both on lower circulation and advertising revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as being "a symptom of an expert-free internet age."[10]
Following the sale of the brand to Empire Media Group,[11] Q was soft launched as an online publication in November 2023, posting new content along with articles from their archive.[12] It was officially relaunched in January 2024, with a new editorial team spearheaded by Los Angeles-based US Editor Andrew Barker and Oxford-based UK and Europe Editor, Dominic Utton.[11]
Notable articles[edit]
In the early days of publication, the magazine's format was much closer in tone to that of Rolling Stone (though with some of the characteristic humour of former Smash Hits staff shining through), with Tom Hibbert's "Who The Hell..." feature (including interviews with people like Jeffrey Archer, Robert Maxwell, Ronnie Biggs[23] and Bernard Manning) and film reviews.[24] However, after EMAP started to publish a new magazine called Empire in 1989 (the idea being that Empire would be 'Q with films'), the movie reviews migrated to the new publication, with Q becoming a magazine focused on music (one found for sale alongside Select and Vox in various magazine racks).
In the 1990s, former NME staff writers, such as Andrew Collins, Danny Kelly, Stuart Maconie, and Charles Shaar Murray joined Paul Du Noyer and Adrian Deevoy over at Q. Music coverage in IPC's 'inkie' indie weekly[25] was becoming more serious after Melody Maker closed down and so names like Maconie[26] felt more at home at a publication that would still run tongue-in-cheek articles such as "40 Celebs About Whom We Only Know One Thing" and "Do I Have To Wear This, Boss?" (Du Noyer's feature about every band having a member who looks out of place in the line-up).[23]
In 2006, Q published a readers' survey, "The 100 Greatest Songs Ever", which was topped by Oasis' "Live Forever".[27]
Q has a history of associating with charitable organisations, and in 2006 the British anti-poverty charity War on Want was named its official charity.
In the April 2007 issue, Q published an article listing "The 100 Greatest Singers", which was topped by Elvis Presley.[28] Lady Gaga posed topless in a shoot for the April 2010 issue of the magazine, which was banned by stores in the United States due to the singer revealing too much of her breasts.[29]
Other Q brands[edit]
After a few years as a radio jukebox, Q Radio launched in June 2008 as a full-service radio station with a complete roster. Shows and presenters include Drivetime with Danielle Perry and Q the 80s with Matthew Rudd. The station was transmitted on the digital television networks in the UK and online. Coldplay were involved with the launch of the station by giving an exclusive interview on Q's flagship programme QPM on the launch day. It was based in Birmingham alongside the now-closed Kerrang! 105.2 after moving from London in 2009. The station was closed in mid-2013 after owners Bauer Media decided to use the station's bandwidth on various platforms (DAB, Digital TV) to launch Kisstory, a spinoff of their Kiss brand. There was a Q TV television channel in the UK, which launched on 2 October 2000 and closed on 3 July 2012.[30]
Q held a yearly awards ceremony called the Q Awards from 1990 until 2019. The Q Awards came to an end along with the publication itself.