The Article
HiFi World Magazine Closes
12th September 2022
I have just received this sad news from the editor and publisher of HiFi World, Noel Keywood
The release says…
“Published since 1991, I regret to tell you that after 32 years Hi-Fi World magazine must now cease publication, since the company producing it – Audio Web Publishing Ltd – has became financially unviable due to loss of bookstand sales in the High Street, at railway stations and airports around the world during the Covid Pandemic. Until 2019 Audio Web Publishing Ltd was trading profitably, but has currently ceased to do so.
“As director I am obliged to liquidate the company and have appointed KSA Group Ltd (licensed insolvency practitioners) to assist and place the company into a creditors voluntary liquidation in order to protect creditors interests.
“All creditors of the company will receive, by post, from KSA Group Ltd, details of a forthcoming creditors meeting and how to make a claim in the liquidation for any financial loss you may have, or are likely to incur.
“I offer heartfelt thanks to all the readers who have supported us for so long. It was the work of my lifetime and very enjoyable too. Thank you all so much. Noel Keywood, publisher.”
As many of you will know, I was a contributor to the magazine. In fact, the longest serving contributor until very recently. I’ll be sad to see it go. It was an odd, quirky little magazine which offered a voice, all its own. It scooted off in its own direction. It never felt corporate. If anything, it was the closest HiFi news-stand magazine I know to a hobbyist publication.
And that’s why I liked it. That’s why I was attracted to writing for the thing, all those years ago.
And end of an era.
Ah no!!!!!!!!!!
That’s desperately sad but unfortunately inevitable in these crazy times. God I don’t know what to say as it was so much a very important part of my life for all of those 32 years. In fact I still have that very first publication with the free Mary Black CD on the cover up in a special place in the attic. Your contributions Paul were the bits I absolutely looked forward to. Anyway I’d better stop here before I start on a tearful nostalgic crusade. Oh and congratulations on your long tenure too. You summed it pretty well Р“If anything, it was the closest HiFi news-stand magazine I know to a hobbyist publication.” Bye bye Noel and the boys and thank you so, so much for making our lives that little bit more worthwhile.
I no longer have the first issue of the magazine, but I do have the Mary Black CD. Very sad but seemingly inevitable.
Sad indeed. By far my favourite hi-fi magazine. It covered items I could afford, and produced the most fantastic articles on all sorts of topics. I especially enjoyed the ‘fixing old stuff’ articles, even though I don’t have the ability to do it myself!
When the editor of a commercial publication begins his piece with a dangling participle, that’s a tell.
Very sad news, it was an excellent magazine.
Hi Paul. Very sad to see it go. I was an avid subscriber during it’s DIY era and still have my WAD KAT6550 amp that I built from the design published in the magazine in the early 2000s. Covid has belatedly claimed another victim.
Best wishes, Mike
So sad to see you go Love your magazine
I’m still here, Barry! 🙂 I know what you mean, though – thanks.
This is sad to read but perhaps not wholly surprising in the climate where magazine sales do seem in decline with the proliferation of website blogs and YouTube reviewers. As a graphic designer I feel for those who produced it and the printers who printed it. More work lost in design for print. Perhaps someone else will take it on and produce a digital version? You know more about this and the sector than I do, Paul. For me, its design did feel a bit dated but that’s no criticism of the writing.
Hi Paul,
Another sad day, indeed. I used to buy it every month without fail.
Cheers
Ian
That’s sad. Though I was not a regular purchaser, I did buy occasionally when travelling through airports. In fact Noel once answered a question in relation to my valve amp that he had given a glowing (pun intended) review to. I hope the contributors can go on to write for other publications, as their knowledge and advice (alongside your own) is much valued.
Hi Paul,
As you say, this is very sad. I was a subscriber from 1991 up to 2022.
I think I’ve read all your columns, and that’s a lot of reading over almost 30 years.
The end of an era indeed.
Jacques
Sad indeed. I was a subscriber and enjoyed its independent take on things. Your contributions were always valued by me, Paul. Best wishes to Noel for the future, and thanks, too.
Worldwide FM announcing closure and now this on the same day. What a shame.