The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on virtually every sector of the economy, with the publishing industry very much included. Today brings sad news from that world: The long-running UK music magazine Q is shutting down. Editor Ted Kessler tweeted this morning that the next issue of Q will be the last one.
I have some bad news about @QMagazine. The issue that comes out on July 28 will be our last. The pandemic did for us and there was nothing more to it than that. I have attached our final cover and my editor’s letter for context.
— Ted Kessler (@TedKessler1) July 20, 2020
On the plus side, we’re all available for work. pic.twitter.com/rm8qOcUBtB
Q has been publishing monthly since 1986. It's generally focused on big, mainstream-friendly rock artists, and it's been heavily invested in the genre's history. In May, The Guardian reported on the uncertain future of Q; the magazine, owned by the German company Bauer Media, had seen its circulation fall significantly in recent years, a process greatly accelerated during the pandemic. Last month, frequent Q cover star Liam Gallagher told Music Week, "It would be a tragedy if Q doesn't survive. There are no other music publications left that can compare."
In a scanned-in letter from the editor, included in the tweet about Q shutting down, Ted Kessler apologizes profusely to the magazine's readers, and he blames the pandemic:
This is the final issue of Q, an eventuality that nobody could've predicted as recently as March. We've been a lean operation for all of my tenure, employing a variety of ways to help keep our head above water in an extremely challenging print environment. COVID-19 wiped all that out.
The final issue of Q is set to come out 7/28.
