Skope Magazine
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| Skope Magazine | |
|---|---|
50 Cent on the Sept/Oct 2007 Issue |
|
| Editor | Bill Kopp |
| Categories | Music |
| Frequency | Bi-Monthly |
| Publisher | Michael Friedman |
| Total Circulation (2007) |
45,000 |
| First issue | January 2001 |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Website | www.skopemagazine.com |
Skope Magazine is a music magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 2000 and privately owned by Michael Friedman. It is published by Skope Entertainment Inc. The magazine is printed bi-monthly in glossy full color.
On May 6, 2008, the Skope mailing list announced that the magazine would be closing its doors effective with the May/June 08' issue:
It is with great dismay that we announce the closing of Skope Magazine. This is effective with the May/June 08' issue. We will not be releasing any issues past this point under the current company structure. Skope's CEO, Michael Friedman said, "I am very upset about this event. The print medium is in a very tough spot right now with the decline of AD & newsstand sales. This is very hard news to take for so many people. I will be taking the next few weeks to clean up this mess and see what is next." We would like to thank you all for 7 years of great music, fun, and a great publication!
Contents |
[edit] Origin
Issue #1 (the Skope Eye issue) was published in 2001. It was printed in black and white, totaled 20 pages, and focused its content on Boston area musicians and emcees. An initial tag-line stated that Skope is"Boston's Premier local music magazine," an idea based on the vision of featuring only local area musicians that were beneath the MTV radar. However, as the magazine grew, the focus on "beneath the MTV radar" artists progressively diminished and larger national and international artists were given preference. Skope features artists across all genres of music including rock, hiphop, jazz, reggae, and folk. Briefly during 2005, the magazine started including a monthly column that featured an interview with a porn star. This column lasted only three issues.[citation needed]
[edit] Distribution
1,000 copies of each issues were distributed for free throughout Northeastern University and at live music venues and cafes throughout Boston. Publication began on a quarterly basis, and moved to a consistent bi-monthly release in 2004.
The April 2004 ("Polyphonic Spree") issue, was the first issue to print in CMYK, and also marked the switch to a "pay" publication. A distribution contract was signed with Newbury Comics and Tower Records in New England to sell the magazine for $1.
In 2006, page count increased to 60 pages and a national distribution contract was signed with Ingram Periodicals allowing the magazine to be placed into national chain bookstores, including Barnes and Noble.
In May of 2007, Canada based CTC Magazines extended the distribution of Skope to newsstands.
The magazine helps to raise money for Autism Speaks.
[edit] www.skopemagazine.com
www.skopemagazine.com, was launched April 1, 2001 to host additional time-sensitive articles, contests, news, artist biographies, event calendars, and sound clips. The intent of the website was aligned with the original plan of supporting local and independent musicians. Pre-Myspace, the site was designed to help expand the musician network; end users (the artists) were given the capability to create a free account, and publish and manage their own biographies, photos, event calendar, and mp3 listening station. Six months after launch, the site was generating over 450,000 page views per day, and hosted biographies from artists originating in The United States, Canada, Sweden, Europe, and South America. Each artist could associate itself with other artists of a similar genre or interest, and then refer fans to these new artist. The website was maintained internally by the Skope creative department until November of 2004, then Nimbit, an outside agency that provides standardized templates and a simplified web content management system, was hired to recreate the websites framework. The design for the site changed dramatically and conflicted with the branding of the printed magazine (it has since become more aligned). After the change, the content quantity increased noticeably, but lacked categorical organization, and the artist-managed features disappeared. As of October 2007, the site receives over 10,000 readers per month and 30,000 page views. It continues to publish articles, a music player that artists can submit songs to for inclusion, advertisements, news, giveaways, blogs, tour dates, and forums.
[edit] Skope Live!
Skope Live! was established in November of 2002 as a live music concert promoter. The first show was held at Harper’s Ferry in Allston, MA, and sold out with John Brown’s Body headlining the event. Other Boston venues to host Skope Live! events include Bill’s Bar, The Middle East, The Cutting Room, FELT, and The All Asia.
[edit] Cover stories
2007 cover stories included: Ludacris, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, Maroon 5, 50 Cent and KT Tunstall.
2006 cover stories included Pharrell, Living Things, Jurassic 5, Taking Back Sunday.
2005 covers included: The Flaming Lips, T House of The Almighty, Fall Out Boy and Thrice.
2004 cover stories included: The Polyphonic Spree, D12, The Dresden Dolls, The Donnas.
