"No Cover magazine claims in their January 2000 Editor’s letter and on their website’s “zine info” page to be “the largest free music publication in California.” Some question the means by which the magazine achieved its circulation rate.

“SpinRecords.com wanted to be granted editorial control of 30% of our music coverage,” said a local insider whose publication now competes with No Cover but was once considered as a venue for SpinRecords’ promotional output. “But I didn’t want to give anyone else control of our content. I’m not sure what No Cover’s financial agreement is, but from what I hear, SpinRecords practically saved them they were in dire straits. I didn’t think [giving up editorial control] was worth it; I still don’t think it is.”

In January, No Cover increased circulation from 15,000 to 120,000 (according to circulation service Verified Audit Circulation). The three-year-old magazine began to pay its writers $20 to $50 per feature. The magazine staff moved into their new office-inside SpinRecords.com’s headquarters in Carlsbad.

Asked if No Cover has a more lucrative but less autonomous arrangement with SpinRecords.com than before, publisher Mark Rasmussen said, “That’s false information.” He credited “smart choices and great coverage” as explanations for their recent growth. “We decide what gets printed in No Cover, and we’ve done some of the best new music coverage in California.

“We do afford a certain amount of coverage to their artists. SpinRecords gave us a great deal, the backing to expand our coverage and circulation, but they don’t own us.”

Craig Combs, senior writer for SpinRecords.com’s online publication, explained the “coverage” supplied the No Cover magazine each month was part of their “content sharing” partnership.

“It simply means that we’re allowed to print online their [No Cover’s] content and they use ours. We write 12 features a month on our bands. They are able to select from those 12 bands which ones they want to run as coverage in their magazine.”

Combs doubles as copy editor for No Cover, in addition to overseeing the SpinRecords.com staff of writers who produce features on their bands for submission to their “print industry partners.” In the three issues since signing with SpinRecords, No Cover has featured two cover stories and six articles on bands or personnel from the record company’s roster. SpinRecords artists’ the Color Red, Hot Sauce Johnson, Natasha’s Ghost, and 13-a have been among the bands profiled, while SpinRecords.com’s CEO Wayne Irving and consultant Kevin Lyman have been the subjects of features stories.

Isn’t that a conflict of interest, I asked, presenting the promotional content of a record company as the unbiased reporting of a periodical?

“Well, it’s not really promo,” Combs replied. “We’re very careful, actually, to keep SpinRecords out of all the articles. Both Mark and I make sure they’re not promo pieces. “We did help No Cover boost their production level from 15,000 to 100,000. I guess some other publications might be a little jealous of that.”

“I don’t see how they can call their zine’s content ‘journalism’ anymore,” the insider argued. “I mean, once you give up control like that, you might as well become a P.R. newsletter.”
  

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