IPC have announced a mini-revamp over at its main music mag NME, which will include some design changes, plus some new regular features including Roots (looking at the musical roots of modern albums), MyMusic (artists chat about their favourite tunes old and new) and 12 Steps (some kind of music trivia thing). The new bands Radar section and Gig Guide will also be expanded, while the redesign will be most obvious on the cover.
Commenting on the rejig, NME Editor Conor McNicholas told CMU: "NME's audience are fast-moving music fans who live at the cutting edge of media culture and media development. As such it's vital the NME continues to develop with them and produce the magazine that's completely right for the time. This refresh allows us to further focus on the content of the paper our readers love most as well as introduce a fresh, clean design that shows off the best of NME's iconic photography and music journalism."
Publishing director Paul Cheal added: "NME magazine continues to sit right at the heart of our fast-evolving brand. This refresh work will further enhance NME's credibility as the essential weekly for passionate music fans while the new editorial franchises will make it an even more engaging read".
The first edition of the rejigged NME will be the one with the previously reported free Coldplay single.
Talking of NME, can we just point out that when we said the music mag had called Morrissey's statement on Friday that implied he had stepped in to save the Love Music Hate Racism concert after the NME pulled out as a sponsor "a cheap shot" that was our words, not theirs. NME just denied that they had ever had any commercial involvement in the anti-racism event and that Mozza was therefore wrong to imply they were the sponsor who had pulled out and left the event with a financial shortfall.