Spin (magazine)

 ( Www.spin.com Official Website ) 

In 1990, Spin hired John Skipper in the new position of publishing director and president while Guccione, Jr. continued to serve as editor and publisher. In the early 1990s, Spin played an influential role on the grunge era, featuring alternative rock artists such as "Nirvana and PJ Harvey on its covers when more mainstream magazines often failed to acknowledge them".

In 1994, two journalists working for the magazine were killed by a landmine while reporting on the Bosnian War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A third, William T. Vollmann, was injured.

In 1997, Guccione Jr. left the magazine after selling Spin to Miller Publishing for $43.3 million. The new owner appointed Michael Hirschorn as editor-in-chief. A partnership made up of Robert Miller, David Salzman, and Quincy Jones, Miller Publishing also owned Vibe, which together made up Vibe/Spin Ventures. In 1999, Alan Light, who previously served as editor of Vibe succeeded Hirschorn at Spin.

In February 2006, Miller Publishing sold the magazine to a San Francisco-based company called the McEvoy Group LLC, which was also the owner of Chronicle Books. The purchase price was reported to be "less than $5 million". That company formed Spin Media LLC as a holding company. The new owners appointed Andy Pemberton, a former editor at Blender, to succeed Michel as editor-in-chief. The first and only issue to be published under Pemberton's editorship was the July 2006 issue which featured Beyoncé on the cover. Pemberton resigned from Spin in June 2006 and was succeeded by Doug Brod, who was executive editor during Michel's tenure.

In 2008, the magazine began publishing a complete digital edition of each issue. For the 25th anniversary of Prince's Purple Rain, in 2009, Spin released "a comprehensive oral history of the film and album and a free downloadable tribute that features nine bands doing song-for-song covers of the record".

In March 2010, the entire collection of Spin magazine back issues became freely readable on Google Books. Brod remained editor until June 2011 when he was replaced by Steve Kandell who previously served as deputy editor. In July 2011, for the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's 1991 album, Nevermind, the magazine released a tribute album including all 13 songs with each covered by a different artist. The album released for free on Facebook included covers by Butch Walker, Amanda Palmer and Titus Andronicus.

With the March 2012 issue, Spin relaunched the magazine in a larger, bi-monthly format and, at the same time, expanded its online presence under digital general manager Jeff Rogers. In July 2012, Spin was sold to Buzzmedia, which eventually renamed itself SpinMedia, which was founded in 1999 by Anthony Batt and Marc Brown. The September/October 2012 issue was the magazine's last print edition. It continued to publish entirely online with Caryn Ganz as its editor-in-chief. In June 2013, Ganz was succeeded by Jem Aswad, who was replaced by Craig Marks in June of the following year.

In 2016, Puja Patel was appointed editor and Eldridge Industries acquired SpinMedia via the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group for an undisclosed amount. Matt Medved became editor in December 2018.

Spin was acquired in 2020 by Next Management Partners. Jimmy Hutcheson serves as chief executive officer with Daniel Kohn as editorial director and Spins founder, Guccione Jr., who rejoined the magazine as creative advisor.

In late 2023, the publication received backlash for Guccione Jr.'s article defending former Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner after the latter made racist and sexist comments that got him ousted from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame board of directors as well as for "Stand Together Music", an initiative used "to launder the reputation of Koch Industries". In 2024 its week-long activation at the South by Southwest conference was sponsored by the United States Army, one of the factors that led to over 100 bands dropping off the festival in protest.

In May 2024, the magazine announced it would relaunch its print edition and publish quarterly starting in August.

For Spins 20th anniversary in 2005, it published a book, Spin: 20 Years of Alternative Music, chronicling the prior two decades in music.

Additionally, the following albums were selected by the magazine as the best albums of their respective years in retrospective lists published decades later for years prior to the magazine's 1990 introduction of year-end album lists:

• Spin, for full view on Google Books