Music
20 Sep 02

Read it and weep

The worldwide magazine "plague" of recent months - which took out Melody Maker, Select and countless American mags - finally reaches Ireland, as two youth-culture titles, clubbingdotcom and d'Side, close down

The newly launched Irish dance magazine, Clubbingdotcom, has closed down.

Says a spokesperson: "Unfortunately, due to current economic conditions, lower than expected advertising and copy sales and the high costs associated with producing a monthly glossy for the relatively small Irish club market, we feel it is no longer viable for us to continue publishing.

"Despite substantial director investment, it appears that we have overestimated the potential of sustaining a business such as ours in what is in reality a niche market."

Founded by the owner of the GPO Club in Galway, Kevin Healy, clubbingdotcom will continue to operate as a website and an outlet for mix and compilation CDs.

Also shutting up shop this week is D'Side, the Irish style magazine set up in the mid-'90s by Melanie Morris.

According to a well-placed source: "The problem wasn't D'Side's own performance, but the fact that the publishers invested heavily in John Ryan's Stars On Sunday project. As soon as that went belly-up, you felt that D-Side was living on borrowed time."