The Skinny is on hiatus

As the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown continues, The Skinny is going on hiatus

Feature by The Skinny | 09 Apr 2020
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It has been, as all correspondence begins these days, a bit of a weird one.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen big chunks of our cities shut down until further notice, taken away the venues we usually work with on advertising and distribution, and caused the cancellation of events that seemed like unstoppable juggernauts a few months ago. And the only sure thing we can say right now is that no-one knows what comes next.

It’s for those reasons we’ve decided to place The Skinny on hiatus for the time being.

After sending the April issue to print a number of our staff went on furlough, and we had initially hoped to be able to keep things going on the website and via social media. In light of some of last week’s news, after reassessing what’s going on across the industry, and having explored all the options available to us, we’ve decided to change course.

The remainder of our April issue will be published on the website in the next week or so, and we’ve turned our social media accounts into a walking, talking celebration of some of our favourite stuff from the archives in recent years.

This is not a decision we’ve taken lightly – we spend large chunks of our lives on this project with the aim of documenting and critiquing the cultural scene across Scotland and beyond, and stepping away from that at such an era-defining moment is extremely difficult to do. In an ideal world, we would keep The Skinny as active as possible right now, but if this situation has proven one thing, it’s that we do not live in an ideal world.

As disappointing as it is, our hiatus is borne out of hope for the future, for a time post-coronavirus. Someday soon, the bars will reopen, the gigs will be as loud as they were before, the clubs will once more be full of suspiciously sweaty people. The Skinny wants to be there for all of it, and the best way to make sure that happens is to take a break for now.

In the meantime, keep following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and as soon as we’re ready to return we’ll let you know. Keep supporting your local musicians, artists, filmmakers, comedians and creatives trying to navigate their way through this – watch their streams, listen to their podcasts, share and back their crowdfunders.

Thanks so much for picking up the magazine, reading the website, coming to our events and getting in touch with us. Look after yourselves and each other, and we’ll see you all soon.

- The Skinny


The Skinny's April issue is available now – click here for details of where to pick up your copy, or read on Issuu here