Top of the flops

In the current climate you would have thought it would be like shooting fish in a barrel - putting out a catch-all music magazine to rival NME, which (from a distance) seems increasingly short on features and ideas and increasingly reliant on pictures and gimmicks.

But, with Popworld Pulp (the tie-in publication with C4's 'Popworld'), the Brooklands Group has failed in the most spectacular style, the first issue notching up just 9,000 sales of an initial print run of 130,000, even with current "new rave" pin-up boys Klaxons on the cover. Unsurprisingly, the plug has already been pulled on the publication.

Which makes the continued success of Everett True's Plan B, subject to similar pressures, all the more remarkable. Of course, it's a different type of publication, catering to a different readership, but it just goes to show that even in the age of the internet people will pay for well-written features and reviews in print form.