[Glice]

That's kind of the interesting thing about the continued existence of the NME - it's stuck to its core market (no problem with that, and nothing that the Wire, Rolling Stone, Guitar Player or Q haven't done) at a time when that core market primarily would get information from broader sources - like you say, Drowned in Sound, Plan B, Pitchfork or the litany of high-profile blogs. It doesn't really bother me that people read the NME - I'm always just a little surprised at the need to.

I think for those of us of a certain age, the NME used to be an indispensable source of information in a time when there wasn't really much print information out there that was easily accessible. I know it was the first place I read about a lot of music I was into when I was a teenager. But I get the impression that it's really lost that central position for a younger generation who simply don't need it when there's so many other places out there. I'm not really bothered by Pitchfork, but they do seem to dig a bit deeper than the landfill indie the NME belligerently holds on to.

The Wire, although I've stopped reading it, does do a great service for its sort of music, I think. Possibly because so much of it genuinely is quite obscure. Like every mag, it has its preferences, and the writing is painfully wanky at times, but I think they have a bit more affection for their niche than a lot of print-based things.