Earlier this month, popular Edinburgh-based culture magazine ‘The Skinny’ announced its closure after 20 years of operations. Sharing the reasoning, they cited a lack of funding to the arts sector and their parent company ‘Radge Media CIC’, which also saw the closure of fellow magazines ‘Gnaw’ and ‘Fest’
On account of this abrupt closure, a slew of support came from many local arts and culture based businesses, companies and charities. With a quick turnaround, the magazine announced a new partnership with Scottish arts charity ‘Outer Spaces’ earlier today.
‘Outer Spaces’ supports over 1,200 artists supporting them with rent-free temporary studios, and developmental programmes and opportunities. With this new partnership, ‘Outer Spaces’ will take over shares of ‘Radge Media CIC’ thus financially stabilising the publication. However, due to their agreement the editorial supervision of the magazine will remain with ‘Radge Media CIC’ maintaining the reporting, style and integrity established by its legacy.
Sharing several statements via the companies official instagrams, both the editor in chief of ‘Radge Media CIC’, Rosamund West and ‘Outer Spaces’ director Shân Edwards, expressed a mutual respect:
“We recognise the importance of strong, consistent and critical journalism as part of the arts ecosystem we operate within- which The Skinny has provided for the past 20 years- and we were pleased to be in the position to intervene with a solution to allow continued operations for The Skinny as well as Radge Media CIC’s other titles”- Shân Edwards
Relief and further support from locals and fellow culture professionals have flooded the comments of their new announcement, with their previous announcement having been archived to avoid confusion.
The continuation of The Skinny is a triumph for the cultural sector of Scotland, seeing the closure of several institutions as of late. Most notably the campaign to save Dundee’s Cooper Gallery, that The Skinny itself reported on in what was to be their last edition.
