Radio and music industry trade publication ALL ACCESS has announced it will shut down on August 15th after 28 years. The company employs 25 people.
Citing “strong financial headwinds, ALL ACCESS Founder, President/Publisher Joel Denver wrote, “This is without question the saddest and most heartbreaking moment of my professional life to have to tell you that ALLACCESS.COM will cease publishing and will be going out of business.”
Not only have global cutbacks in digital advertising affected most publications, but record labels, who once used ads on ALL ACCESS to reach radio, are increasingly less interested in the over-the-air broadcasters. “The dollars are just not there to support our operation and staff any longer,” according to the announcement.
“It is hard to disassociate ALL ACCESS’ fate from our own.”
Never behind a paywall, ALL ACCESS was part of the daily media intake of those in the radio and record industries, and many were quick to express deep sadness at the publication’s passing and acknowledge broader implications.
“It is hard to disassociate ALL ACCESS’ fate from our own.” wrote radio guru Fred Jacobs. “This isn’t just about what befell Joel and his staff – it is a referendum on radio and all of us who work in it… Thanks to All Access, thousands of people found employment, every format under the sun has received fair coverage, and the staff worked hard to get out the “breaking news” stories and alerts we often take for granted.”
Archives of the publication will remain online indefinitely.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.
