Some people harbour the impression I have a problem with Mixmag. This is because to an extent, I do. I believe there are issues they downplay or refuse to cover at all – and these are either because of inherent bias in their own staff or worrying that advertisers won’t like it.

But this said, I will happily defend the right of Mixmag to exist. And when they do get things right – the time Funk Butcher took over an issue comes to mind – they mop the floor with the competition. However, I think Mixmag has been somewhat drifting over the past two years.

The reason, I suspect, is the lack of a print edition. Previously, Mixmag ran a hybrid operation of print and online – the website was used for getting news out, whereas print focused more on features. But the pandemic put paid to that – temporarily, according to Mixmag owner Wasted Talent’s MD Nick Stevenson.

Originally in April 2020, they confirmed publication would be suspended for three months. Then at the end of June 2020, this changed to saying Mixmag would see print again in 2021. Yet it’s now January 2022 and there’s no sign of the magazine gracing the shelves once more.

So what’s been going on? Well, Mixmag recently launched a print edition in Spain, for starters. They’ve also been expanding their online presence and I have noticed an increase in the number of staff. I understand they took on a weekend editor lately, presumably having realised the internet doesn’t switch off at dinnertime on a Friday.

What they don’t appear to have been doing is recruiting writers, journalists and such to work on a print edition. Curiously however, services such as this one continue to exist online where you can subscribe to the physical magazine – but with no return date in the diary, anyone who paid could be waiting a long time.

Looks like DJ Mag’s monopoly on the dance music magazine marketplace will remain undisturbed for quite a while longer…