Radar shuts down and more magazine news

Yesterday Radar Magazine shut its doors. it's the third time the magazine has closed, but this time it looks it's really out of luck -- although the website will continue with a new owner, a new editor, and a mandate, according to a source at the New York Observer, to "become a competitor to TMZ." The closure stranded Ana Marie Cox on the McCain campaign trail, compelling her to ask for funding to keep covering the candidate, and left editor-at-large Choire Sicha with nothing to do but take photos of his ex-boss Alex Balk carting his belongings down the street.

The announcement came one day after the New Business Models for News conference, held at CUNY's journalism school. Writing about it for the Online Journalism Review, David Westphal says the conference reminded him of the adage "There is no solution. Seek it lovingly," adding, "There probably won't be A solution. There will be solutions." Like Cox taking $10 a pop over PayPal to cover her $1000/day travel expenses?

Sigh. Maybe one of the solutions is making pretty multimedia presentations. New York Magazine did that this week with a slideshow of a reading by writers Robert Christgau, Rob Sheffield, Chuck Klosterman, Dan Kennedy and Marc Spitz. The rock writers gathered to support the launch of a new website, Stories in High Fidelity, which "will be a place for bands, record stores, labels and writers to share their personal memories and opinions, tour diaries, album or live reviews, favorite bands or records and so much more." A new storytelling-oriented website -- that's good news, right?

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo by LoopZilla via Flickr