NME is Time Inc’s music brand that is 63 years old and it is to become a free weekly magazine from this September. Time Inc said, NME through a mixture of curated and original content “dramatically increases its content output and range”. Its digital output will be expanded to contain fashion, film, television, gaming, technology and politics.
Going free from a cover price of £2.50, the 300,000 copies of NME will be distributed nationally via retail partners, train-stations and universities. NME will strive to broaden its global footprint and expand its live events, video franchises and boost up engagement on new social media platforms. Launched back in March 1952, as New Musical Express, the challenge the brand has faced is symbolic to passion brands trying to adapt to changes in media consumption. Although its circulation has been falling over the last 2 decades, its website ad social media platforms is one of the largest in the business.
Time Inc hopes that NME as a free magazine will maintain its extended print run of more than 300,000 copies. It aims to attract more advertising from lifestyle brands to offset the additional multi-million pound cost of NME’s production expenses and extra prints, as a free magazine distributed weekly, nation-wide.
