Colonial arrogance does for NME Ireland

THERE she goes. After less than four months on the news stands, NME Ireland has departed to music mag heaven, yet another publication that failed to survive the commercial cut and thrust of the marketplace. Whatever about the pulling power of the NME, the Irish angle just didn't work.

An eight-page supplement containing Irish music news, excellent live reviews, gig listings and some ads (most of which came from MCD Concerts, the biggest advertiser in the country according to figures from the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland), NME Ireland never had the cleft or clout that the mothership has enjoyed since its launch in 1952.

Of course, it takes time to establish your credentials, but the magazine's publishers, IPC, were not prepared to allow the fledging title this time to develop. Irish editor Steve Cummins did his best to put a positive spin on the story on Phantom FM's The Kiosk last weekend, but there was an underlying sense of bemusement to his protestations about how well the magazine had performed in its short lifetime.

When the title's editor points out that the magazine didn't spend a cent on marketing or advertising its wares, you really have to wonder what the hell the decision-makers at NME headquarters thought they were doing on this excursion.

Apart from a blitz of publicity when the magazine launched last October, there were absolutely no other efforts made to push the Irish content in the magazine.

A lot of decisions to do with the magazine were odd. From the off, with that ridiculous cover featuring "Ireland's biggest new band", Humanzi, NME Ireland looked as if it was strictly following orders from London. Few in Ireland were using "biggest" in a positive way to describe poor Humanzi at the time. Whoever decided this cover was the way to launch a magazine must have been having a laugh.

There was a distinct feeling of colonial arrogance to NME's Irish adventures. While current NME editor Conor McNicholas has stymied years of falling sales by sharply cutting and shaping the magazine's look and content to suit a very defined readership, it doesn't necessarily follow that what sells in Britain will work over here.

Instead of covering those acts that were actually making waves with Irish audiences, the supplement concentrated on a small bunch of local bands who stick to the NME handbook. Naturally, NME Ireland covered new Irish bands like no other title on the shelves. However, even the main title covers the big hitters such as The Killers and Arctic Monkeys, so why wasn't NME Ireland doing something similar here with domestic big tickets? After all, that's what would have added extra sales.

It's puzzling, especially when you consider that IPC was simply copying what News International and Associated Newspapers already do with the various Irish editions of their titles. The daily and Sunday papers from these publishers cover the big local stories because they know this is what attracts a readership. At the NME, this simple commercial fact escaped everyone's attention.

The NME's capitulation also begs the question of whether there's an audience here for a dedicated weekly music magazine. There's certainly a need for an excellent online resource to cover Irish and international music rather than the feeble, futile, amateurish and out-of-date efforts currently taking up bandwidth.

But there has never been a time when music coverage is more widespread in print. Every newspaper now covers music in much greater detail than ever before. A decade ago, an NME Ireland would have been a huge hit, because there was a demand for music coverage that no one else was meeting.

Ironically, NME's failure to establish an Irish edition comes at a time when the domestic new band scene has never been healthier. Advances in technology have democratised the record-making and releasing process, which means more albums are now released in Ireland annually than ever before.

NME Ireland would have been perfectly placed to document and support these acts but, sadly, the title's paymasters chose to blank this scene instead.