I never thought I’d feel sorry for Jann Wenner.
But Noah Schactman, the current editor of Rolling Stone, has just thrown the magazine’s founder under the bus again and backed up over him.
Shactman has posted a Letter from the Editor titled: “Today’s Rolling Stone: In the wake of our founder’s offensive comments, we’re taking a hard look at where we’ve been and where we’re going”
Pretty much everyone else has moved on from Wenner’s crazy New York Times interview in which he said Black and female artists weren’t articulate enough to be profiled for his new book. Wenner was instantly cancelled. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which also founded, dumped him from the board. Rolling Stone, which is run by his son, Gus, distanced itself from him quickly with a public upbraiding. His book, “The Masters,” was DOA is now sitting at number 41,069 on the amazon best sellers list.
But now it’s Shactman’s turn. He’s got a “Musicians on Musicians” issue coming out tomorrow, so he wants to emphasize that Blacks and females are welcome. He’s got Snoop Dogg on the cover with Latto, in case you don’t get it.
You can read Shactman’s letter here.
I do wonder how this works, with Gus Wenner there over Shactman. But they must have taken a big hit from advertisers to this far. According to similarweb.com the mag’s website lost 3 million visitors in September, and was down 9% in readership.
When that happens, even relatives get thrown under that bus.
