Some people may currently be forgiven for thinking we wanted nothing more than to see the back of Mixmag after their recent disgraceful treatment of Annabel Ross – whose coverage over Derrick May and Erick Morillo won the publication an award. But nothing could be further from our minds – indeed, Ears To The House would dearly love to see a thriving Mixmag once again.

Let’s be honest here. The Mixmag of the 1990s was a vastly different beast to the craven, weak Mixmag we see today. Back then, the print publication was led by a team of devoted journalists and writers who understood their subject, but generally kept enough distance from artists to cover them more objectively. Yes, the idolatry of DJs has always been a problem – but at least the dance music magazine culture of the era led to a certain degree of innovation.

Compare and contrast with the pitiful sight of Mixmag today. An online offering only since the suspension of the printed magazine in April 2020, the website nowadays is largely operated by a team of poorly paid, regularly rotated interns – whose main job appears to be regurgitating press releases to make clickbait content.

Perhaps the return of a print edition might help turn this sorry state of affairs around? People who are going out to shops to buy a physical product expect something far better than the cut and paste articles offered online – but Mixmag currently have no staff working on a print edition, and haven’t for over two years. So what’s the chances of their return?

A source who spoke to Ears To The House many months ago now simply says “I hope I’m wrong here, because Mixmag at its best was unrivalled, but I really do think now that anyone who got the April 2020 issue now has the final edition of the magazine. After a two year absence from print, starting again would be like starting a new magazine. You’d be trying to persuade your online followers to buy a magazine – and I don’t think that’s a realistic strategy. And print is slow compared to online, so I just don’t see it ever coming back now. I think it’s the end of an era.”.

That would effectively mean DJ Mag is the last of the dance music magazines to remain standing on news shelves…