Thread on Q closing: Really sad that brilliant journalists have lost their jobs. If Bauer couldn't find a buyer, I wonder if they would have given the brand / transferred ownership to the writers.

Lots of "death of music journalism" commentary but contrast that with Stereogum's recent crowdfunder. Nearly £250K from 9000 backers - which is positive - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-stereogum-an-00s-covers-comp#/

But what's interesting is that a member-owned model actually frees up the writers to write about music that inspires them. If writers exist outside an industry then they don't have to worry about where the ad revenue is coming from i.e. labels, big touring artists.

If more artists go fully independent from a label/industry structure then we need more places that can write about them. Member-owned makes it a level playing field. An independent Q would be such a good read.

To riff on. Any member-funded music publication could have four rules:

1. Diversity of writers/voices in every issue. 2. No advertising. So Universal can't take the back page for the full year and all the soft influence that brings.

3. All interviews via Skype. So no paid for trips to an LA studio for U2 to tell us about their new album. Bono on Skype from LA, and @BeaconBelisha on Skype from Leeds.

And finally, the company has an asset lock. A golden (preferred) share embedded in the @WeAreTheMU, so the platform can't be sold. It exists with a purpose to simply write about music not to be built for a Conde Nast et al exit.

As I initially said, really sad for the writers losing income. Q is a big loss.

Hopefully, we're not seeing the end of music journalism, but instead an opportunity for something new.

Ends.