Firstly, a brief history lesson.  Once upon a time a younger and indeed more aerodynamic Key Notes was a fresh faced Marketing and Languages graduate.  Unsure of what to do with himself for the rest of his life, he decided that he might as well give marketing a go, seeing as he'd spent the previous four years studying Satan's craft.  While browsing various employment websites (amongst other things) he discovered a job in the marketing department of Hot Press. 

"I like music and I've studied marketing!" he thought to himself, filled at once with the prospect of getting free stuff furthering his career.  Having sent off a diligently prepared CV and cover letter (in which he mimicked the writing, ahem, "style" of Hot Press main man Olaf Tyaransen) he waited in expectation for a call to interview.  Alas, it was not to be. Interestingly, he did receive a letter from Hot Press thanking him for his application, but that his interests "did not match our criteria."  Ever since the day he was rejected by Hot Press for his interest in music, Key Notes has refused to buy a copy.

Now, Dickensian in drama and morality as the above tale might be; it is also a damning indictment of what is wrong with Hot Press and music journalism in Ireland.  The magazine, which has been in existence for over 30 years and has a circulation of almost 20,000 people, is not really very good.  Worse still, it's not really about music anymore.  How could Key Notes know this if he doesn't buy the magazine you ask?  Well buying and reading are two different things aren't they?

According to the Advertise with us page of its website (which was written, ironically enough, in 2005): "Hot Press is the leading and established publication of its genre. Now in its 30th year of publication, Hot Press is living proof that you don’t survive, much less move forward, by standing still.  Always a magazine that has kept abreast and frequently ahead of the times, Hot Press has entered the new millennium with a whole new look and sense of purpose. This in turn has allowed the magazine to break ground - increasing its quota of fashion, gaming and much more!"  

Now, before Key Notes is accused of being "a ranting leftie" (as Mrs. Key Notes is wont to accuse), one does realise that Hot Press is a commercial venture and that it lives and dies by its advertising which, in turn, feeds off its circulation.  Key Notes is aware of all of this, but commercial concerns shouldn't affect the quality of writing, the editorial content and, most importantly, the music content of a music magazine.  And therein lies the problem.  Hot Press, as a source of music content, just isn't relevant anymore.

Key Notes can't speak for everyone but if it wants to find information on music its first port of call is right here, on the magical world of the internet.  The recent Irish Blog Awards show the quality, and even more tellingly, the relevancy of online journalism/blogging.   These people are more in tune (pun intended) with what is happening in music in Ireland than most writers Hot Press can put forward. 

Hot Press have a very poor web presence, thanks mostly to the fact that they are one of the few sites to still charge visitors for access.  Even if Hot Press stopped charging for access to their site, how many of you would hold you hand up and say "Yes, I'd visit that"?  Why would you when you can come to sites like CLUAS and Muse. As Eoghan has pointed out before, in the past year over three times as many people have visited CLUAS than have visited the Hot Press site (see graph from Compete below).

How does this bode for State.  Well, they've made a good start in that their web content is free and they've appointed award winning blogger nialler9 to update it.  As regards the print version, Key Notes wishes them all the best but it is hard to see how they are going to be able to compete with Hot Press. As Jim Carroll has said, cautious advertisers may well push their clients in the direction of the more established magazine.  Is this fair; probably not, but then very little in life or in business is.  All Key Notes knows is that it won't change his reading habits.

To Key Notes, the present and the future of music journalism in Ireland is represented by the Friday morning freebies, the blogosphere and music sites such as CLUAS.  The Ticket and Day & Night provide a weekly fix of print media, while everything, yes everything, else that Key Notes needs to know, can be found on line.  Good luck to State, but it's really difficult to see how its going to establish itself without ending up as irrelevant to music as Hot Press is now.