A man who’s been in the industry for a very, very long time once told me “The thing about [Defected boss] Simon Dunmore is he’s very good at two things in life. Making friends and making money – and he has few qualms about mixing the two, so long as he’s earning out of it too”.

His words came to mind when someone kindly suggested an idea to me for a post. Last week, this blog published two articles about Faith fanzine. They didn’t like it and expressed their disapproval in an oh so modern way – by unfollowing me on Twitter. Like the rest of the dance music press, they appear to be run by terribly thin-skinned people who don’t like being scrutinised.

I now find myself asking another question. Why does Defected back Faith fanzine? The original publication ran from 1999 to 2012 and printed a pathetic 24 editions in that time – an average of 1.8 issues per year. Given that other dance publications were putting out at least one issue per month, this is nothing to write home about.

Yet last year, this magazine suddenly reappeared during the pandemic – and Defected were all over it, with at least one advert for a release from the label appearing in the first new issue. Simon Dunmore himself referenced this on April 13th last year, saying it “continues our investment into dance music culture”.

But does investing into a print magazine make any sense for Defected? A source close to the label suggests it does, saying “People like nostalgia and people like the fanzine. It sells well. I think Simon’s known all three founders of the original magazine for years – him and Terry Farley first met about 30 years ago. Everyone’s being paid out of it, so why not?”.

However, this does put Defected into the position where it’s effectively competing against dance magazines which they used to advertise in many years ago. Yet my source insists Dunmore is “relaxed” about this, pointing out “Print is only a tiny bit of the whole operation. Defected overwhelmingly operates online these days.”.

I just wonder how Defected will respond when that initial novelty of the magazine’s return wears off. Dunmore is known in the business for being willing to take time to build something up, even if it means making less money – in the short term, at least…