What’s the hell is wrong with Rolling Stone Canada?
I was rather excited at the beginning of the year when it was announced that there would be a Rolling Stone Canada. The online-only publication debuted on January 15 at ca.rollingstone.com with Tate McCrae on the cover.
“Great!” I thought. “Another source of music news and information! Rolling Stone will do a fantastic job!”
Er, no. It’s a disaster. Content is essentially rehashed material from the main Rolling Stone site that, well…
On Friday (July 24), I checked the music news section; there was exactly one (1) new story, which was coverage of a Katy Perry concert film, dated the day before. Fine. Scrolling down, the next story under “most popular” was the following:
Yes, May 6, more than two months ago. And Bonnie Tyler died on July 8.
Scrolling down further, we encounter all the rehashed stuff with stories coming at the average rate of one every three or four days. And unless you count the story about Justin Bieber’s performance at the World Cup final halftime show, there’s nothing “Canada” about “Rolling Stone Canada.”
There is no reason to subscribe. None.
This is strange since Rolling Stone Australia is pretty good. It’s updated with music news daily and features very timely and current coverage of the Australian music scene. And the original American Rolling Stone is good. I even pay for a susbscription.
So why is there a problem with the Canadian edition? It’s beyond an embarrassment. Maybe something will happen before the CNE in Toronto, because Rolling Stone Canada is one of the sponsors of the Bandshell live music series.
Meanwhile, rival SPIN is launching a Canadian edition, and it’s led by former NOW magazine publisher and NXNE founder Michael Hollett. It promises to be “built around branded content, artist collaborations and sponsored activations.” Great! That sounds promising!
Spin Canada was officially launched on June 10 at NXNE. Anyone hear anything since then?
