My cousin used to work for Scratch Magazine. In fact, he was the editor in chief for so many issues before they started phasing out the mag.. He did a blog about it, thought It would be cool to copy paste it here. Good read... but its only his opinion.
I’m Mad (R.I.P. Scratch Magazine)
Current mood: contemplative
Producer: one that produces; especially : one that grows agricultural products or manufactures crude materials into articles of use
2 : a person who supervises or finances a work (as a staged or recorded performance) for exhibition or dissemination to the public
Now that my former 9-to-5 of Scratch magazine has gone the way of Blaze, Stress, Rap Pages, et al. I know that some of you are wondering what I think. Honestly, I'm not surprised. I don't doubt that a ton of hard work went into every issue, but the readers have to understand the context of what is going on. Scratch is the first purely original hip-hop magazine idea (or magazine idea in general) to come along in YEARS. Everything else you've seen has had a template or blueprint to follow. Even the new XXL cover with upcoming rappers is a re-tread of a Source cover from 1998. But Scratch was going in uncharted territory. That meant that a great deal of adjustment had to be made with each issue. The larger issue, and I've discussed this before, is that the general population isn't made to care about how they get what they get, they just want it. Meaning, they don't care how Soulja Boy got such a catchy groove for his hit song, they just want to learn the dance. They don't care how the ipod works, they just want it to play their music. They don't care how the cow gets slaughtered to make their burger, they just want to make sure they get the prize they want in the Happy Meal. This was a magazine for those interested in the how-to and that just doesn't translate to big dollars in a world of "gimme now."
I've read some of the comments from readers on the Myspace page where they ask "what can we do?" Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do. You've already voted with your dollars and/or subscriptions and in this case your candidate did not win the election. Consider your sub cards dangling Chads. Maybe someone will buy the name, maybe it will continue online in another form. Maybe I have something up my sleeve...