Generic Research - "Farewell to Smash Hits" - interesting points

The original article.

• Smash Hits managed to lose 840,000 readers in 17 years, despite running for three decades. 
• The article explains how Smash Hits was known for possessing an "impertinent tone and peculiar sense of humour" - the content was considered quirky, reflecting what pop music was apparently like during the time of Smash Hits. The article mentions how a former writer claims that "the magazine's standard line of questioning was never 'What's your favourite colour?' but 'What colour is a Thursday?'. The article seems to praise this. However, nowadays, if a music magazine verged on quirky and asked ridiculous questions like Smash Hits did then the magazine would not be taken seriously as a music magazine. Many magazines are criticised and labeled as "tabloid" if they ask artists/bands questions not relating to music.
• The article talks about how Smash Hits, although a pop magazine, had a specialist indie page.
• Smash Hits' reviews were not very professional and resembled something more like a regular music consumer would say. For example, a critique of David Bowie's 1983 album, Let's Dance, consisted of simply, "Well ... dull. DULL DULL DULL DULL DULL. But so what? Everyone makes a dull record occasionally." It implies how Smash Hits was not just another magazine in the industry but consisted of people with actual opinions and did not beat around the bush.
• The main reason behind Smash Hits' downfall was what may have been appealing to its target audience in the 80s as something refreshing, it didn't appeal to the audience then. The writer blames the lack of "rounded, interesting, flawed human beings" in teen pop, which Smash Hits thrived off of. According to the writer, record companies began "media-training" their artists and essentially "depriving" them of their personality.

Another magazine which has recently experienced a downfall is NME. Here is an article regarding that and how it is trying to deal with the rapid decline of sales.