There have been plenty of difficult moments for music journalism over the past decade, but last week is a major turning point for music reporting across the globe, leaving countless questions to be answered.
Last week, reports surfaced that Alternative Press, BrooklynVegan, Revolver, and Goldmine were hit with widespread layoffs from their parent company, Veeps, leaving the future of several of alternative music’s most influential publications uncertain. According to Pitchfork, BrooklynVegan lost nearly their entire editorial staff, while the other publications were also facing bare minimum staffing and reduced freelance budgets. Neither Veeps nor Live Nation has publicly commented on the layoffs as of this publication.
Alternative Press specifically has helped define the pop punk, emo, and post-hardcore scenes for generations of fans. For years, AP has introduced readers to bands that would go on to become some of the biggest names in alternative music. BrooklynVegan became one of the internet’s most trusted sources for indie, punk, hardcore, and alternative music, while Revolver has remained one of the most respected voices in heavy music for more than two decades. Together, these publications have documented scenes that many mainstream entertainment outlets have often ignored.
Independent music journalism has always been about recognizing talent where it sprouts and giving smaller bands a platform when they don’t have a massive marketing budget behind them. Independent publications document the local scenes, highlight DIY culture, and preserve music history, all while building the grounds for succession with the next generation of artists, journalists, interviewers, and photographers.
The ownership behind these publications has made the situation difficult to ignore. Veeps was founded by Good Charlotte‘s Joel and Benji Madden before Live Nation acquired a controlling stake in the livestreaming platform in 2021. Since then, Veeps has expanded beyond livestreaming, eventually becoming the home of publications like Alternative Press, BrooklynVegan, Revolver, and Goldmine.
To be clear, there is no public evidence suggesting Joel or Benji Madden personally made the decision to cut staff, but the optics are hard to overlook. Just queue up Lifestyle of the Rich and the Famous.
Throughout their careers, the Madden brothers have built a reputation around supporting artists and creating opportunities through projects like MDDN and Veeps. For many, this is what makes it feel so contradictory, because even if the decisions ultimately came from a larger corporate structure, it’s difficult to reconcile the message of supporting music communities with the reality of gutting what keeps them running, particularly in conjunction with the messaging of their music.
Unfortunately, we’ve watched music journalism shrink for years. Publications close, merge, or dramatically reduce staff all while writers are expected to produce more with fewer resources while competing against algorithms, social media, and hollow content, not to mention the rise in AI content across the board.
The journalists who lost their jobs last week are simply irreplaceable, and operating on bare minimum staffing is a direct threat to consistent, high-quality reporting, and it rewards shallow content with quick rollout.
Right now, no one knows what will happen next. Maybe these publications find a way to rebuild and continue under a different model. Or, maybe they’ll become something entirely different than the outlets so many fans grew up reading. But all of these options are highly unsettling for longtime readers, young musicians, and small DIY magazines, because these publications have laid the foundation for what music journalism looks like in the modern world.
If some of the most recognizable, well-respected names in music journalism are being threatened, who else is at risk? If publications with decades of history can be reduced to skeleton crews, it’s fair to wonder what that means for the rest of us.
