Can Jack Bauer Save The Music-Magazine Business?

noah | February 2, 2009 3:00 am

Future US, which publishes Nintendo Power, hopes so! The magazine company will launch Guitar Aficionado, a magazine geared toward the ever-decreasing subset of “affluent men 35-54 years of age” who like to play guitar, later this spring. The $7.99-a-copy quarterly will focus not just on fancy guitars, but on “mavericks” like Kiefer Sutherland who have their own collections of six-strings, as well as really expensive items that will, the parent company hopes, lure in those lucrative advertisers who have fled the pages of The New Yorker and oher cushy upscale magazines. (Because clearly they’re just looking for someplace to hide their money!)

The first page of the magazine’s informational brochure made me wish The Baffler was still around.

For those people who are still skittish about sinking any money into this venture, this graph of how a 50-year-old collectible item’s worth has skyrocketed in comparison to that of actual commodities is supposed to soothe jangled nerves:

Don’t you feel better now? Just remember, everyone: Unlike many other music-related commodities that have been grossly devalued over the past awful decady for the biz, you can’t download a guitar! Well, not yet anyway.

Guitar Aficionado [Official site] Future US To Launch Upscale Music Magazine [Folio via Catbird]