News

Rolling Stone Readies Major Redesign

Rolling Stone has announced its biggest redesign in more than three decades, a move from its trademark large, saddle-stitched format to a more standard perfect-bound magazine size. All in hopes of boosting ad and newsstand sales, as well as adding 16 to 20 more pages of editorial content.

"It feels to me just like a natural step for us to take," Will Dana, Rolling Stone's managing editor, said in a statement. "It's always exciting to shake things up a bit and to grow and to do things differently."

All changes will happen starting with the magazine's October 17 issue. While Rolling Stone's reported an all-time high circulation of 1.5 million, its newsstand sales for the first six months of 2008 are 4,091 copies lower than last year.

"We've been challenged at the newsstand recently," Dana admitted, "which is an industry-wide trend, and the decline pretty much mirrors where we are vis-a-vis our competitors."

Jann Wenner launched Rolling Stone in 1967 with John Lennon on his first cover.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
08.12.08