Saturday, June 21, 2014

The ends

Andy Sturdevant's very entertaining book, "Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow," devotes a chapter to the death of publications. He reprints the final notices -- and some suggestive articles that, read the right way, predict the end of the publications.

He quotes two publications I am familiar with -- and I actually remember reading these final notices myself.
Metropolis issue from July 12, 1977.
Photo by Paul Shambroom.

Inside spread from Metropolis, February 1977. Illos by (left
to right): Glenn Wolff, Michael Karn and Mark Simonson.

Here's the one from Metropolis. Metropolis was a very well designed weekly newspaper in Minneapolis/St. Paul. It did everything better than its weekly rival, the Entertainer (soon to be renamed Twin Cities Reader), yet it did not prevail.


Machete #8 from 1979. All of the issues
looked like this one -- except the final
issue (#16). Fall photos are by
Paul Shambroom.

The final issue of Machete (#16) from
1980. Photo by Paul Shambroom.
Here's the one from Machete. Machete was a monthly four-page, oversized paper put out by a couple of the same people who worked on Metropolis. It seemed more like a hobby than a real going concern, so I wasn't surprised when they called it quits.


But Andy left out a couple other suggestive articles. These two are from publications that I happened to work at when they went out of business.

Here's the one from a monthly music publication, Musician's Insider. That the Insider bought the Mad City Music Sheet doesn't automatically lead to the Insider going out of business. But, out of business it went. July 1979.


Here's the one from the weekly newspaper, Twin Cities Reader. This little news bit doesn't say that Stern Publishing bought both the Reader and its fierce rival, City Pages, at the same time. Stern immediately stopped publishing the Reader. City Pages is still published, though it may be owned by someone else now. March 12, 1997.


Update: I've added images of Metropolis and Machete courtesy Mark Simonson.

7 comments:

Mark Simonson said...

Kind of funny and weird to see someone (and someone who was not even living in the area way back when) writing about this stuff. I hadn't thought about the Metropolis or Machete sign-offs since they were published. Man, hard to believe how long ago that was.

(For readers who are not David: I was on the staff of both of those publications doing art/design/production.)

Mark Simonson said...

Also, thanks for posting this, David. Bought the book yesterday.

David Steinlicht said...

Mark, Yeah, that Andy Sturdevant goes deep into Minneapolis with this book.

And there is definitely not enough Metropolis and Machete visuals available for viewing on the internet! I wanted to use a picture of Metropolis for this post, but I could find nothing on the internet already (and I -- sadly -- do not have any copies of it in my collection anymore). So, Mark, if you have an image, cough-cough, I'd sneak it into this post.

It was a long time ago -- but it was good work.

Andy Sturdevant said...

Thanks for the mention, David! As well as the other two. I had originally included the Reader announcement, but it didn't make the final cut for space limitations, along with a few others (including, I think, "Your Flesh" and "Connie's Insider").

The design in both Machete and Metropolis was exceptionally good. Someone should apply for a grant to get them all digitized and online.

Mark Simonson said...

Thanks, Andy. And that's a great idea. I'd do it myself it I had the time. I've got at least one copy, in some cases multiple copies, of all issues of both publications.

David Steinlicht said...

Andy --
I think Connie's Insider was the precursor to Musician's Insider. Not sure if Connie's was out of business when it restarted as Musician's or not.

Your Flesh! THAT was a weird and wacky publication.

As for getting all of Metropolis and Machete online -- there is a ton of pre-internet stuff that would be nice to have up there in the cloud. A grant, eh? Sounds like a great idea. Mark! Have your minions get on that! Maybe start with Machete. . . .

Mark Simonson said...

I'll pencil that in for... Let me get back to you on that.