For more than three decades Rolling Stone magazine has been considered the bible of music and popular culture. The magazine’s founder and publisher, Jan Wenner, was able to build Rolling Stone into a publishing empire because he was one of the first magazine moguls to recognize that rock ‘n’ roll was the language of choice for the baby-boom generation. Wenner also had the insight and daring to move the magazine beyond music into movies, politics, and other significant cultural issues. Rolling Stone took its readers to the bloody streets outside the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, to Woodstock, and to the Vietnam war. It also led its readers into the minds of some of the greatest performing artists of the time, such as John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and Mick Jagger, with long, penetrating interviews by Wenner himself. The magazine attracted some of the finest writers in the country and featured the work of gifted photographers such as Annie Leibovitz. It was an honor for writers to be published in the magazine and for musicians to be on the cover.
Rolling Stone dominated the music/pop cultural space for more than two decades. However, in the late 80s and early 90s the music scene began to change with the emergence of new genres such as alternative rock, metal, rap, and hip-hop. Critics note that Rolling Stone’s music focus began to blur and it fell behind in its coverage of new artists and musical trends, a situation that created an opportunity for new publications. One of the major competitors to emerge was Spin magazine, which was started in 1986 by Bob Guccione, Jr., who moved the magazine aggressively into alternative rock and metal in the early 90s. Guccione notes that he modeled the magazine after Rolling Stone: “My model for Spin was Rolling Stone of the 70s, which meant something to me when I was a young man. My romanticism was to paralel what Rolling Stone meant to me when I was 18 and have Spin be that to today’s people who are 18.” In addition to Spin, Rolling Stone is now being encroached upon by other direct competitors such as Vibe, Blender, and Alternative Press as well as publications targeting the young male audience, ranging from ESPN The Magazine to “lad mags” such as Maxim, Stuff, and FHM. Rolling Stone must find a way to make the magazine essential again in a publishing world that has been inspired by it and has long been chipping away at its relevance. Jan Wenner says: “Maybe there is a generational change. Maybe there is a larger significance. But Rolling Stone has got to be as relevant today as it was 25 or 30 years ago.” Rolling Stone is taking steps not only to remain relevant but to recapture its position as a cutting-edge publication that is the bible of music and popular culture. The magazine has undergone a major redesign and changes to update its image and make it appealing to a younger audience. The new Rolling Stone has shorter articles, brighter colors, and less serious news content. The Rock ‘n’ Roll section has been expanded, with new subsections like “rock feuds,” which highlights rock-star whining in convenient sound-byte form. The Reviews section has been broadened to regularly feature movies, books, DVDs, video games, and music gadgets. The New Releases section has been expanded to include more CD reviews in each issue and compete with Blender’s exhaustive review section. The redesigned Rolling Stone uses more sidebars and navigational aids like toolbars that emblazon department titles across the pages it runs.
The CEO of another publishing company equates the challenge facing Rolling Stone with that facing Levi’s jeans, noting: “They are both iconic brands in their own sectors, but the biggest challenge is to make sure folks don’t perceive Levi’s as my father’s jeans and Rolling Stone as my father’s magazine.” In the late 80s Rolling Stone ran its now famous “Perception/reality” campaign, which was successful in repositioning the publication and changing advertisers’ image of the type of person who reads the magazine. The goal of the campaign was to convince advertisers that Rolling Stone was not a “hippie magazine” read only by those stuck in the 60s but rather that it reached a well-educated and affluent audience and reflected the changing attitudes, ideas, and lifestyles of people who were changing the world. The challenge facing Rolling Stone this time is different, as it must now convince a new generation of young people that it is still relevant to them.