Craig Marks, Veteran of Music Journalism, Named Editor in Chief of Spin.com

Music website Spin.com has named Craig Marks its editor in chief. Mr. Marks was executive editor of Spin magazine in the 1990s before helping to introduce Blender magazine. "I've always been very involved in music journalism and I think Spin is the best place I could possibly be for that," he told Ad Age. But he is taking on a very different Spin and a changed media scene, including younger, well-read competitors such as Pitchfork. Spin magazine, which began publishing in 1985, went all digital at the end of 2012, roughly six months after SpinMedia -- then BuzzMedia -- bought the title. It has shuffled through a handful of editors since then, most recently Jem Aswad, who took the job last June. Mr. Aswad left Spin earlier this year. "My goal is to grow the digital audience and engage young people and others with a brand that is still considered a gold standard in music journalism," said Mr. Marks, who most recently served as the first-ever editorial director at BlogTalkRadio. "I want Spin to reflect the tastes of its young music-consuming audience. I want it to be fun, entertaining and engaging; I want it to break stories." Mr. Marks said he plans to grow Spin's editorial staff, which was informed of his hiring Thursday afternoon. An executive at SpinMedia declined to disclose the number of people working at Spin.com. Last September, SpinMedia replaced CEO Steve Hansen with Dale Strang, who became the company's third CEO in only nine months. Spin.com had 679,000 mobile and desktop unique visitors in May, up 5% from a year ago, according to ComScore.

Craig Marks, Veteran of Music Journalism, Named Editor in Chief of Spin.com

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