The Word folded last week after nine years, announced via a message from Hepworth on its homepage. The news prompted an outpouring of tributes from the music media and readers.

In his new blog, posted over the weekend, Hepworth notes that the "speed with which this item of news spread and became a news event in which people could happily participate... was a live demonstration of the same forces which mean you can't publish magazines, or indeed anything, the way ...