By G.W. Schulz
It was incredibly disheartening to learn today that one the nation’s best known indie-culture and rock zines, Punk Planet, had published its final edition after 13 years and 80 issues. Longtime editor Dan Sinker has announced that it will cease to exist in hardcopy form after the current issue.
No small number of punk journos and thinkers owe a massive debt of gratitude to PP for offering young writers a chance to explore the craft and young readers a chance to see how the “news” is much more than what appears in daily headlines.
Former Guardian staffers A.C. Thompson and Annalee Newitz have written some of the magazine’s most memorable pieces. I certainly wouldn’t be at the Guardian today – or in any media job at all, for that matter – if it weren’t for how much I gleaned from Punk Planet about what could be accomplished through alternative, long-form and literary journalism.
