Keeping on keeping on

Many happy returns to the Quietus, which has turned 18. Its birthday should be celebrated not only because of the consistently stellar quality of the articles it publishes week in, week out, but also because simply continuing to survive in the current climate, at a time of dwindling ad revenue, is a hugely admirable achievement.

That much was underlined by a less welcome announcement today: the sudden closure of The Skinny. The Scottish arts and culture magazine, in existence for more than two decades, has succumbed to the dreaded combination of "funding pressures across the sector, rising costs and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis", and will I suspect be much missed north of the border.

All the more reason to be thankful that the Quietus continue to fly the flag for quality music/culture journalism, in a media landscape that looks increasingly barren and impoverished.