''Paste'' is an American monthly
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
and
entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...
digital
magazine
A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
, headquartered in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
,
with studios in Atlanta and
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication from 2002 to 2010 before converting to online-only.
History
The magazine was founded as a quarterly in July 2002 and was owned by Josh Jackson, Nick Purdy, and Tim Regan-Porter.
In October 2007, the magazine tried the "
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...
" experiment, offering new and current
subscribers the ability to pay what they wanted for a one-year subscription to ''Paste''.
The subscriber base increased by 28,000, but ''Paste'' president Tim Regan-Porter noted the model was not sustainable; he hoped the new subscribers would renew the following year at the current rates and the increase in web traffic would attract additional subscribers and
advertisers.
Amidst an economic downturn, ''Paste'' began to suffer from lagging
ad revenue, as did other magazine publishers in 2008 and 2009.
On May 14, 2009, ''Paste'' editors announced a plan to save the magazine, by pleading to its readers, musicians and celebrities for contributions. Cost-cutting by the magazine did not stem the losses. The crux cited for the financial troubles was the lack of advertiser spending.
In 2009, ''Paste'' launched an hour-long TV pilot for
Halogen TV called ''Pop Goes the Culture''.
On August 31, 2010, ''Paste'' suspended the print magazine, but continues publication as the online PasteMagazine.com.
In November 2023, ''Paste'' magazine acquired two
G/O Media
G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that owns and operates the digital media outlets '' Kotaku'' and '' The Root''.
It was formed in 2019 after the private equity firm Great Hill Partners purchased two digital portfolios from ...
properties—the US-based news and culture site ''
Jezebel'', along with the left-leaning news and opinion site
Splinter, after the site closed down. It also purchased ''
The A.V. Club'', another former G/O Media property, in March 2024.
Content
Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music,
Film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
and
Culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
". ''Paste''s initial focus was music, covering a variety of genres with an emphasis on
adult album alternative,
Americana and
indie rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
, along with
independent film
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...
and
book
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...
s. Each issue originally included a
CD music sampler but was dropped in favor of digital downloading as a
Going-Green initiative. Featured artists included
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
,
Ryan Adams,
Blackalicious,
Regina Spektor,
the Whigs,
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She released five albums from 1996 to 2020, all of which reached the top 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200 chart. As of 2021, she has sold over ...
,
the Decemberists
The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, formed in 2000. The band consists of Colin Meloy (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion, backing vocals ...
,
Mark Heard,
Woven Hand, Milton and the Devils Party,
Liam Finn,
the Trolleyvox, and
Thom Yorke. Many of these artists also contributed to the Campaign to Save ''Paste''.
Album of the Year
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{Authority control
2002 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
2010 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Entertainment magazines published in the United States
Defunct magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 2002
Magazines disestablished in 2010
Magazines published in Atlanta
Online magazines with defunct print editions
Online music magazines published in the United States
Quarterly magazines published in the United States