surprises. In fact they could make subscriber's editions with blank covers; no cover star and no indication of what is inside. That's why I prefer radio to CDs in my car.

I read most of the stuff but skip whatever articles hold no interest for me. When those articles become more than 50% of the magazine I will cease my readership. Did it with Q and Mojo in the past.

You beat me too it. I was just about to refer to the same "And Another Thing" and make exactly the same point. But give Andrew Collins a break. He's Ok.

I see the whole Word thing on a few levels. Firstly the magazine. It's a cultural snapshot from professional journo's. Most of whom I rate very highly, a few I'm less enamoured. But it has a high hit rate for me. And the CD is pretty good.

Then the podcasts. I love them. They make me laugh, think and check stuff out. It is the only podcast I normally listen to straight away.

Then there is the website. I enjoy it's irreverance and it information. In the last week its shown me a great t shirt website, put me a week in front of Chris Moyles re. Les Ross, shown me a christian rock band that I still don't know if they are real or not as well as allow me to read the thoughts of people whom I find genuinely insightful and entertaining.

And I get all of this for the price of a £37 subsription per year. I don't think thats bad value however you look at it.

And a mag designed by a committee already exists - its called the Yateley Town Crier and believe me its shite.

What does it say about me, a professional 40something person working in a "creative" profession, that I find myself drawn each month to the Word of Mouth feature(s)as almost the first thing I read each month?

And if the Word were to become purely a music magazine, as opposed to the 90%(?) it is now I would be off like a shot.

Answers on a postcard to.... and hopefully they might arrive unlike my Series 5 of the Wire which Amazon or the Royal Mail appear to have lost!

That's three posts Martin's started, all moaning bitterly about the magazine: the pieces are too short, the content is trivial, and there's not enough attention paid to the Durutti Column (that's come up twice so far).

I'd keep well out of his way.

Have you ever noticed how, when a music website or magazine asks readers to nominate their top ten greatest albums of all time, the individual votes will show a great variety of different tastes, but the overall top ten always ends up being the same old mix of Stones, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Bowie and Radiohead LPs?

That’s one good reason why allowing readers to dictate content is a really bad idea. Another is the likelihood of cliques forming around certain artists, genres or eras. Cliques, by their nature, are exclusive, blinkered in their outlook and resistant to change. Over time their grooves become deep, well-worn ruts.

I’ve seen plenty of internet messageboards succumb to a kind of unimaginative group mindset that can be difficult to break out of, alienates newcomers and ends in slow stagnation.

When it comes to the content of WORD, OK!, or indeed any magazine, you vote with the money in your pocket. Is what they’re offering worth what you're willing to pay?

Did you fall out of bed this morning or what. Your previous post was valid and alot of guys agreed with some of your points but there is no need to drone on about it. You've been seen/heard.

PS there is no need to get personal a la Andrew Collins. Who is actually good IMHO.

If Kate Mossman had to include every CD released in any given month in the reviews section the mag would have to increase its number of pages ten fold. Either that or decrease its print size.

One of the reasons this particular part of The Word is so good is that it concentrates on a relatively small number of releases. I have no real problem with rival publications' policy of covering what seems like hundreds of albums every month but I find that I end up just scanning all but those that I'm already interested in.

At least with Word I can rely on a concise section that covers, to my mind at least, just about the right number of releases in a usually informed fashion. Saying that I still think the sarky review of The Felice Brothers album a few issues back was an absolute bag of the proverbial.

... (whatever that means) but The WORD is pretty damn good.

If you don't like it don't buy it or "search for intelligent life elsewhere".

As for the idea of "crowdsourcing" for the magazine, music, television or otherwise, generally I'm against it. Focus Groups are the scourge of the modern age.

...I love it.

I know there's always going to be something I don't read or don't particularly like.

What's that phrase? You can please some of the people all of the time....?

Rich

The man on the Clapham Omnibus? He knows f-all in my experience. Sid Vicious said nothing of value during his short life other than: "I met the man on the street. He was a c***".

The Word Blog is excellent and sometimes I think I prefer reading this than the magazine. Then I remember that the magazine is why we are all here in the first place.

Your preferences and dislikes in the mag are shared by some and opposed by others. Will always be so.

would the magazine be willing to accomodate them?"

I already pay The Word to produce a magazine I like. Nearly £5 a month. I should subscribe and get it cheaper but this way if I don't like the looks of the content one month I get to withhold my monies.

I'm not convinced by the crowdsourcing idea anyway. I'm not entirely convinced that I know what I want. I only know what I like already - I don't know what new things I'm going to like in the future.

The amount of times I've thought something was wrong for me and then came to realise later just how great it was (The West Wing, The Pixies, ipods, real ale, this list goes on).

I'd like the things I buy to be designed by others. I'll make my choices from that. It's not laziness or a lack of imagination. The great leaps foward in art, science, etc etc do, after all, tend to come from the individual.

(oh .... and lay off Collins).

He's OK but it's his ubiquity which I find tedious. Works hard though, I'll grant him that.

with your 100% crap comment. The first thing I do is peek to find out the porkie, then I read the rest of it; it's at the least mildy amusing, and at best informative and interesting. The level of creativity needed to invent the stinker isn't particularly high though.

As for the DC, I agree with your lamentations about Vini's continuing invisibility to the culture and entertainment media.

The reviews I think are about right - there's already enough well informed and well written content there to guarantee my ongoing beskintedness in pursuit of tunes.

As for the bloody Wire, I'm sick of it too, but they'll get over it eventually, so let them blather on about it for a while longer. It reminds me of the hushed giggling conversations we had at the back of assembly reiterating the previous night's Monty Python sketches, when telly programmes were a shared youthful delight. Bless.

Has it actually featured in the magazine that much? I don't really think so - much more so on The Blog in fact, and mainly by bloggers themselves so 'crowdsourcing' by us (who are only a small proportion of readership of course) would probably lead to votes for more on 'The Wire'. As it goes this month's feature and interview was exactly the kind of thorough exploration of a subject I want more of. As someone who is yet to really get into this TV show, but has the first series on DVD, I actually found that the article was really fascinating since it was about crime, society, politics and popular culture and not that much about the series itself directly - necessariy so for obvious reasons. As I have said before, am open minded about subject range - it's good writing and interviews with bright people who have something worth saying about stuff I could pontificate about far less effectively and interestingly that are the thing. Oh dear, I seem to be discussing 'The Wire'.

there was a feature on The Wire last year (Van Morrison cover) and the recent interview with David Simon, as well as a column by David Hepworth. Add in a good few mentions of recommendation, but you could hardly accuse it of taking over the magazine. To be honest I love the show that much I wouldn't mind a bit more coverage.
As others have mentioned if it hadn't been for The Word I certainly wouldn't have picked up on The Wire in time to watch the full run on FX, so for that I will be eternally grateful.

I like most aspects of the mag, but could gladly live without Word of Mouth.

I want what I do not know I want. And the Word staff delivers that. The writers’ tastes are sympatico with mine and I know I can use them as reliable “filters”, more so than any of the other music mags around. Granted, I can use The Wire magazine as a reliable purveyer as well – of all the latest art-damaged kipple – but why pay for that?

The idea of a ‘crowdsourced’ mag is about as appealing to me as a movie that’s been recut or had the ending changed because it didn’t play well to test audiences. I prefer editorial integrity and authority over mob consensus.

On a related note, perhaps, I despise it when bands performing live encourage the crowd to sing the choruses. I didn't pay to hear the audience.

No matter what's in it you'll all keep buying it. And so will I. There is a sort of inertia that sets in with the reader of any music magazine - and particularly with what used to be called 'the £50 guy' - I'm not sure where inflation has left him these days - and that guy is undoubtedly The Word's principal target.

He's getting on a bit, visiting HMV and Zavvi buying up re-mastered editions of old favourites. He wants a magazine that feels comfortable and covers the stuff he likes (RT) and gently keeps him up to date with some new things in a similar vein (TT). It's edited by those two guys from way back - you know the slightly smug one, and the slightly zany one - that used to present 'Whistle Test' - now why don't they make music shows like that anymore? Trouble is you get nice and comfy and along comes the 'OK' / 'Heat' aesthetic and it starts to follow the trend towards bite sized gossip and info-tainment.

But there's nowhere else to go for your monthly fix. Too old for 'Heat' and too young for 'The People's Friend', so you keep buying it ... just not as enthusiastically as you used to.

I used to subscribe, but I don't anymore. I used to run to the shop, now I pick it up at the garage when I need to buy petrol. I still buy it, but I get more from the blog.

As Archie said it's just part of the cultural shift from pot roast to pot noodle. Whatcha gonna do about it? Vote for UKIP?

P.S. "Give me pot roast, not pot noodle" - put that on a T-shirt and send Archie his 10% .

whatsoever to complain about the magazine.
But I can understand why some are complaining and yes I do have a theory.

The Word has from the very beginning cultivated a culture or image of being different, being better, being intelligent and dare I say it being somewhat elitist in it's content and worldview.
And so has attracted a readership of shall we say a high standard.

If in the opinion of certain quarters of it's readership this standard has dropped then we will keep getting threads like this one.

The Word has in essence created a monster that has, in regards to this blog, come back to bite them.

That's the main problem with The Word.

I haven't read Andrew Collins' column since he wrote that ridiculous one about mobile phone masts causing cancer a while back. It was irrensponsible, credulous, out of place and unimaginative.

I don't care about The Wire and I wish everyone would stop wittering on about it, but I guess if I'm in a minority I'll just have to lump it.

I quite like the Word of Mouth section. I think hearing someone talk about their cultural tastes often gives you a better insight into them than an interview. And reading Julie Burchill struggling to talk about someone other than herself, and try to convince us that she cries every time she hears Ultra Nate, was hilarious.

If The Word started writing about things because enough people voted for them to do so I would stop buying it on principle.

Ms Mossman is a fine writer and has quickly become one of Word Towers' greatest assets, but isn't she being spread a bit thin? Reviews, a major feature and two festival reports all in one issue...I wouldn't be all that surprised to learn she's also been ghosting Mr E's editorials.

asked the people what they wanted they'd have said 'faster horses'.
Maybe we just didn't know we wanted the 'Heroes and Hotties' article, the 'Guitar Hero video game' article followed a month later by a 'Guitar Hero video game article that wasn't an article it was an advertising feature', the Who's the Best Dead Rockstar List, The second Dead Beatle cover in 3 months.
In fairness, we've had some good stuff too. I loved the 'We're all becoming ticket touts article', the feature explaining why all modern music sounds the same, interviews with Elvis Costello and Alan Moore. I missed the David Peace one - can anyone tell me which issue/cover it was in?
Whilst I'm a little out of love with the mag at the moment I'd rather the staff came up with the content than ourselves. I enjoy the podcast a lot - but, for me the weakest ones are those rare ones that seem to be over reliant on material lifted from this blog.

Can we not leave the Word folk alone? You'd think they had a dream job - working with a group of like-minded mates, listening to music, watching DVDs and reading books, then writing about them. Throw in a bit of travel and the odd concert and all's well with the world.
But no. Unfortunately they're attempting to produce an interesting magazine - and make a living - in a market which is so conservative it makes the scary Palin woman look liberal and all we ever do is complain. Their job is impossible.
The magazine is not perfect but it's the best there is for me. My perfect magazine would be 30% music, 30% film, 20% books and 20% cricket. Noone else would buy it.
Word have a difficult balancing act and they're doing OK. I'll keep on reading it til I get bored, just as I did with Smash Hits, NME, Q, Uncut and Mojo. Magazines change, and so do people.

Surely all this is because many of us spend far more time than is sensible or wise blogging away on this site, hence giving far more thought to the Word than perhaps we would otherwise give, whether de novo or prompted by the lines of others. Sure, there are dips in quality of the magazine: the last few issues have been lacklustre, but not yet sufficient to abandon ship. Likewise, the blog has begun to pall a little, but that may be as a result of an absence making it harder to get back in the saddle. And don't all humans always think things were either better previously or should be better than they are now?

Well i wanted to know. So there.

This is as pointless as you and I arguing about our favourite albums: I like mine and you like yours, end of story. I personally feel that Word has gone off the boil recently with too many opinion pieces that are just, hey - opinions, and lists of things masquerading as articles. Add to that the Lemmy interview and I wonder why I subscribed. However I can always cancel my sub or not buy an issue, but Word's contents dictated by its readers would be horrible! Viva la Revolucion - but not this one...

Invest in sub-editing.

but they are a bright bunch and will take comments on board whilst knowing it is a good formula. personally i like ' word of mouth ' although surely the interest depends on who you ask.

also re Nico's comment on the felice bros - yes the review was terrible but they introduced a track on the cd based on the blog comments. as i had not been on the blog despite reading the mag for 3 years i listened to the cd and loved the track . So the mag , the blog and other media= interesting and healthy music / entertainment . long live the Word ( acknowledging everything evolves !)

..but some of you have got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, haven´t you.
I thank the WORD for turning me on to the Wire, I quite like the 99% True page, ( it´s just a bit of fun ) and I like Andrew Collins, so leave him alone.
As per cover stars and features , there´s a reason the same old faces keep`popping up.They are popular, easy. If you put the Durrutti Column or something similar , half of us wouldn´t know who he was and the other wouldn´t care.

Not that I'd buy any of his records but it was interesting.

I hate the idea of a "crowdsourced" (what a crap term) magazine. One of the joys of the The Word is that, after I've read all the stuff about things I already know, I can go back and read about people and things I've never heard of or have never paid much attention to.

I am a bit sick of all the mentions of The Wire - if it's not Word it's the Guardian. It's definitely a favourite among journalists. But that's partly because I've never seen it and the only way I can catch up now is by buying some very expensive box sets (unless somebody can tell me it's all being shown again on TV). That said I did, surprisingly, enjoy the article on The Wire in the current issue. Should I ever get to see it I now have an idea of what it sets out to do. But please stop the mentions now.

And I like Andrew Collins and Word of Mouth. I particularly like to guess the sort of music and books etc that the interviewees like before I read them. I'm right quite a lot of the time but often there's a real surprise.

The crowdsourcing argument is clearly unpopular. But it's already happening to recorded music. The idea of the album as artistic statement seems to be on its way out because of digital downloads and the desire to choose and hand pick individual tracks. Sorry, I loathe itunes and all that stuff. I don't mind listening to a few duff tracks on an album. It makes you more appreciative of the good ones. But I can see magazines going the same way as albums. Why not put the mag. online and let people download the articles they want and skip the ones they don't. This way, you only pay for the stuff you read. Then each person could have their own individually customised version of Word as a pdf file or something, that could be printed out. So, crucially, you could still read it on the loo. Again, before everyone gets in a flap, I'm not saying I want this to happen. But it's crowdsourcing isn't it?

There are enough god awful blogs/websites out there without polluting a great mag with this tosh.........by the way mine is at
www.quims.org
- Bob The Chiropodist (also of Leeds)