Creative Loafing music fans, you are some loud, passionate folks. Somebody rattles your cages, you react like pit bulls, all snarly, quivery-lipped, teeth-baring, saliva-dripping growls and barks. Y’all can be downright scary.
And that’s a good thing.
I’m talking, of course, about the music-section controversy that lit up the Charlotte Interwebs like a Southern California wildfire after we introduced CL‘s new look last month. No sooner had the paper hit the streets than this city’s music community had locked in on one particular detail: We’d moved the Soundboard club and concert listings from print to online.
Music fans, music writers, musicians, music-venue owners — even a couple of out-of-state journalists I know from my years editing national music magazines — told us exactly what you thought of this move. In no uncertain terms. Even non-music fans weighed in.
You didn’t like it. Not one bit. You sent us emails and actual letters handwritten on paper. You posted comments to our Facebook page and tweeted about it. You grumbled when we walked by on the streets.
And we heard you. We were listening. We asked questions. In my editor’s note last week and by video on the CL website, I asked regular readers of Creative Loafing to write, call, post and tweet to us. Do you want the Soundboard concert listings back in the paper or are you OK with this info being online only? Overwhelmingly, you made it clear that you want to see these listings back in the paper.
So, this week, we have done just that. Yes folks, you asked, we delivered.
In all my years at all kinds of publications — from a fairly well-known national music mag to the entertainment section of a local daily — this dialogue with CL readers about the Soundboard listings has been one of the more interesting, exasperating and ultimately satisfying I’ve ever had with a readership.
Most of you offered impassioned, reasoned pleas for the return of Soundboard to the print edition. You told us you use these listings every week. You gave solid arguments why you wanted Soundboard back in print: you like the paper version of Soundboard because it’s more convenient than the online version. Some of you wanted it back because, frankly, it’s free advertising for your venues or gigs. I understand that. Free is good.
Then there were the handful of you people who went crazy with the insults. Soundboard, you whined, was the only reason you picked up CL. Apart from Soundboard, you complained, CL sucks. Guess what? We didn’t bring back Soundboard for you. Why would we? You’re mean.
What was most interesting and refreshing to me is that most of you wanted Soundboard back in the paper because you like CL‘s print edition. You like to read the paper. Let me repeat that: You like to read the paper. In a time when the newspaper industry is suffering, advertising is going to other media, page counts are down, people are moving to online and mobile platforms — you told us you like reading CL‘s print edition.
That, folks, is beautiful music to this newspaper editor’s ears. That’s why this editor is delighted to give you back what you want: the Soundboard listings, on page 37, newly formatted to make things even easier for you.
Thank you, Creative Loafing readers, we love your snarly asses!
Related Stories
Creative Loafing gets a new look
Soundboard returns
This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2012.
Well i’m not sure if ya brought it back for people like me hahahahaha I smoke meth naked with raccoon’s ,but i’m damn glad to see it back,there are so much talent here and people need to know it.So party on Wayne Party on Garth,lets rock and roll.
you know, the least you could have done is write this up with a little class. this “announcement” reads like a crabby babysitter throwing candy at unruly kids. bringing back the concert listings doesn’t make you a knight in shining armor to the music scene of charlotte. it doesnt solve the serious gaps in the coverage of the charlotte music scene that your magazine consistently displays, and acting high and mighty about it doesnt win you any popularity contests either. wherever you’re from, i assure you that charlotte likes their apologies sincere and heartfelt, not full of whining about being called nasty names after doing what can only be described as “nasty name-worthy.” get over yourself, and get out to a venue besides the fillmore to cover a real local show!
Hmm, first paragraph you use a stupid stereotype about pit bulls. Then you proceed to drop a couple times that you have been an editor for a national mag and generally build yourself up when you were the one who made the dumb ass mistake. How about pumping up local bands instead of inflating your own ego. You have been writing for “3 decades” Doesn’t seem like it.
I’m sorry but I’m going to have to agree, this whole thing reads as arrogant, high & mighty, ungrateful & disappointing. Don’t expect a thank you from me or most of my peers that you should have “asked” and “listened to” and “catered to” in the first place, before this ridiculous controversy ever came up. I’m glad it’s back in print but you’ve still got a long long way to go. I won’t claim to have all of the answers but I certainly hope you all figure it out before you botch it all up again. Good Luck.
Good,,,,it was my favorite part of the paper.
Well, that was a step in the right direction. Now you’re just back to the point of being extremely clueless about the music scene, instead of COMPLETELY clueless. Wanna make it even better? Reassign your music “writers” to other departments. And get people who actually reach out beyond the same 5 or 6 scene approved cliques that your rag continually rehashes, over and over and over.
Glad to hear (and soon, see) that this has been remedied.
You pathetic losers are telling CL to have a little class? Ha!
You won, folks. Show some class instead of acting like entitled pinheads.