It is with great sadness that we announce that Alternative Ulster was unsuccessful in securing Arts Council funding for 2012/2013. As a result, AU Magazine is being put on hiatus. The website will continue to be run on a voluntary basis, and AU will continue to promote the best of Northern Irish and Irish music, culture and lifestyle in every way it possibly can.
The number of people who made AU Magazine the shining beacon of quality that it was over the almost nine years in which it was published are far too numerous to mention in this statement, as it’s a list that runs long. To each and every writer, designer, photographer, illustrator, intern, assistant, advertiser and individual who worked on or touched AU in any way, we are more grateful than words can express. We are incredibly proud of each one of the 81 issues that we produced, and that this is a testament to the talent, energy and time of each and every person who made it what it was. We literally cannot thank everyone enough.
We’d also like to give praise to every one of the bands, artists and cultural ventures that we featured over the years. Covering such an immensely vibrant and burgeoning scene has been an absolute privilege and pleasure.
Finally, an enormous thank you to the readers of AU, as without their passion and enthusiasm we simply wouldn’t have existed at all.
This is such a shame and (yet another) blow to Irish music. Very sorry to hear.
This is really sad. The Northern Ireland has lost a shining light within publishing and music journalism.
If you can’t get funded then who can. This is a real shame. I wonder who they did finance. Pathetic.
Dudes, this sucks. Thanks for all the awesome issues and hopefully you guys will be back in print soon.
Una
Ah, that’s a real shame! I’m very sorry to hear that. Quality magazine.
Hi Guys,
So sorry to hear this, the magazine will be sorely missed!
Emma, Aileen and Jenny @ EA
Totally crap news to hear. Sorry guys, if there is anything we can possibly do to help, let us know.
Very bad news. Chronic. And I can’t say I’m surprised at this kind of news. The what’s council? Black Arts council? Perhaps all one can say is those people don’t know. But the extent of that is so much more than would be thought typically.
So Belfast’s back to shiny magazines like Fate which are only really for tourists to find a place to stay whilst reading blackslapping articles to con them into thinking anything much happens here. All those awards for glossies such as Fate and Go Belfast – they’re a facade. That’s the way the people in power seem to like things here. There’s a particular high up person in the Arts Council I once knew who excels in that direction, as if no-one else could.
I can’t see you guys ever getting back to print again.
Magazines are dying, why can’t you see that?! Release the magasines on the iPad.
RIP….For Now
fundit?
We need more publications…
Shocking decision & sorry news. Genuinely hope that at some point in the near future this great mag gets back on the shelves.
This is a major cock-up from the arts council, is there any chance of funding from other sources? Sad days!
So sad to hear this, such a shame
Thanks to everyone involved for the great work over the years, and hope you’ll be back in the future, N.Irish music needs you.
This is such a shame and such a loss to music in NI. Its been a blast workin with you lot, the work you all do is truly brilliant, here’s hoping you’ll be back in print soon…
Real shame to hear this news…. gutted!
Such a great magazine, hope to see you back in print soon.
Sorry to hear that.
A website we have always looked up to!
Not just a loss to NI music, it was the nicest looking (and to be a stationery fetishist about it, smelling) publication in the country full stop. Will miss having Ray Wingnut drop them into us at the station.
It’s an absolute disgrace that you guys didn’t get funding! Hope you get sorted soon.
Chris & the entire team in AU, this is awful news. What a vibrant and talented team of people and music enthusiasts that has made AU the special magazine it has become known to be. Thanks for all the awesome 81 issues and hopefully you guys will be back in the print world soon. Quality magazine. But hopeful to hear that Online will continue on a volunteer basis. Hope its not too long.
Linda & Gang in Goodseed PR xxx
Once again the arts administration completely fails to see the ball with the goal straight in front of them. Why can’t culture be about art forms that people enjoy rather than endure. It’s a crying shame that the North will lose this gem of a magazine. I hope you get some support for your online efforts
Awful news. What a crying shame guys. Sad day.
[...] can read AU’s full statement here. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
Ah, shit.
[...] Alternative Ulster announced on Friday it was to cease production of its magazine, it caught many by surprise. Less than six months after [...]
A very sad day. But I would prefer to think of it this as the start of a period of convalescence, not a wake.
At the risk of sounding like a crusty fogey, I remember the days when it first started off, the accompanying optimism and stories in the press welcoming its creation.
Kudos is due for it keeping going for so long. Fingers, toes, arms, legs and eyes crossed, AU will be able to rise again before long.
That’s a real shame, but I have faith that the people working at AU will rise from the ashes. Too talented not to!
very sad
[...] 81 issues, AU failed to secure Arts Council funding for the next year. Its editor, Chris Jones, wrote: “We are incredibly proud of each one of the 81 issues that we produced, and that this is a [...]
Gutted to hear that AU no longer to be printed, a bad blow indeed, but I’d hoped it’ll stick around online. Saw this news just after a great Titanic Lockdown event and launch of Sunflowerfest, at a time when NI is gearing up for a positive summer of new and returning festivals to serve an audience and a scene hungry for more, something AU was instrumental in building. A shame, but I trust it’s not the end…
Thank god and serves you right! No wonder you got no funding. Enough money has been wasted on promoting your friends bands and ignoring everyone else. You never did one thing for any band I knew except ignore their emails/calls for help. Bye bye.
What we just learnt: Jackie doesn’t know many bands, and the ones she does know aren’t very good.
Aww, no way! Really? Hmmm, priorities, eh? Really loved reading AU magazine. Something, intelligent, witty and overall a good read. Shame that we can’t find a sustainable business model for this type of publishing. Anyway, good talent never sleeps. I shall look forward to the return of AU. Thanks!
Very sad to hear your print edition is stopping. I do hope that you keep the website going and find new ways to continue your important contribution! Your voice must be heard.
Have to REALLY disagree with someone claiming in an earlier comment that print publishing more or less is pointless today.
Yes, have e-editions, they’re quite central nowadays. But print will always be funadamental. I’d never bother looking for something like AU mag, unless I picked it up in a café. I enjoyed coming across it and reading it over a snack. There’s something more real about what’s physical, something more central and meaningful.
… more than just giving a sense of the place being actually quite normal, AU helped to combat the notion of this being a strange, ‘sceney’ place (for such a strange, ‘sceney’ place). So, with what AU did, there was the prospect of that normal things could happen here also, anything could happen. It rooted the strange ‘sceney’ness in more of a potentially normal seeming reality in thinking. I think this thing I found in AU Mag is necessary in a strange, ‘sceney’ place.
I love the magazine and am as disappointed as everyone else, but for this statement to not thank (or even acknowledge) those that funded the magazine for years, leaves a bad taste.
A real, real shame. Why is it this kind of good thing is always seen as expendable in ‘hard times’. GMC got it right.