... she meant to say 'nice'.

the reason The Word is the only magazine I buy each month is due to its diversity. All types of music are covered, from the 'Tangle to Burial, there is superb, informed cultural commentary from David Hepworth and others and it generally appeals to people who wouldn't consider Oasis to be the best band ever. If 'niche' means 'appealing to someone with a brain' then yes, I suppose it is.

...many of the music critics on The Guardian and The Observer tend to really get my goat. Too much sneering and posturing for my liking; many of their writers are too in love with themselves to pass reasonable judgement on any given album, in my opinion. And yes, most of them seem to be ex-NME or ex-Melody Maker.

"People who can write interviewing people who can talk for people who can read."

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/shirty#comment-27620

Obviously this equates to "niche" in Barbara Ellen's lowest common denominator world.

Word, Mojo, Uncut and, once in a blue moon, Q. Apart from Q (which i fell out of love with a LONG time ago) I enjoy all of them. They all have their good AND bad points. I realize this is the Word website but the amount of abuse any rival music publication/journalist is subject too on this blog is starting to put me off Word! Not because of the mag itself - although the Moz piece by David Quantick really ticked me off - but because of my fellow readers! Come on, I'm sure David, Mark (ex-NME i think) and the rest of the Word crew can take a bit of minor criticism without the blog regulars on here having to jump to their defence. For the record, i read Barbara Ellen's piece and didn't for one second think she was having a go at Word, just pointing out that it appealed to a selective readership.

...having now read that article in question there wasn't anything bad about the mag. I'm still not a fan of some of their articles (particularly the blogs) though.

The Word caters to a demographic, just like any other magazine.

This takes me back to the time I picketed Endeavour House with a handmade sign that read: Damn you, I am individual, only for a passing employee from Development Hell to remark: "Actually our market research indicates that you will shortly undergo a midlife crisis, which you will attempt to resolve by purchasing a McFly album."

I just wondered what niche we are in?

The Word is a relatively small-circulation magazine which caters for a fairly small "community of interest", i.e. intelligent writing about contemporary popular culture for a reasonably intelligent readership whose tastes and interests are more rareified than the mainstream mass market. It is therefore a "niche" magazine. I don't think we'd want it any other way; and I don't think Barbara Ellen used the term "niche" to either belittle or criticise the magazine.
About the only thing I agree with Barbara Ellen about though.

.....writes very well and has done for many years, I think, and is one of the reasons I buy the Observer (along with Nigel Slater and Jay Rayner, but thats another tale). I think niche is quite a decent epithet. It implies no criticism. I read it with some pride, sad git that I am, as it made me feel that a niche was a cosy haven of like minded, give or take some variations in taste, individuals. God forbid we embrace the mainstream. The Q is long enough for that already (geddit!)
P.S. to Grac: a little bit of funpokery at the buffoons of Unshod and Slomo cuts no mustard compared to the lashings given Heppo, Ello and the Frazester from the Irregulars. I buy the same trio of mags as you and enjoy 'em too, but, hey, some humour does no harm. And I still think the editor of Unshod should get a haircut and stop beaming in tales of excess from yonder years as it is no longer big and no longer clever.
(Q is unreadable claptrap of course, unreservedly.)

...those anecdotes from the editor of, ahem, 'Unshod' do nothing for me either. I'm not an Uncut fan by any stretch, but I still wouldn't have put it down there with NME or Q. Don't buy Mojo now but I've never had a problem with it; it tends to have more maturity, without childish potshots, and has not been fashion/trend conscious like Q and NME are.

is Jeremy Clarkson.

is Bill Oddie.

You make it (Slomo) sound quite good! I cancelled their subscription much as I took Word's out, as much as in pique as they had failed to add a cover disc and because I wanted the Shelby does Dusty.
I feel too young for Classic anything......

why have we not twigged? Barbara Ellen. Mark Ellen. Related? Um, previously related?