Conde Nast buys Pitchfork to bring ‘millennial males’ to their roster

Pitchfork will also continue to put out its quarterly Pitchfork Review magazine under its new ownership. The publication also adds a stand-alone music blog to the publisher’s already diverse catalog of publications, said Fred Santarpia, the company’s chief digital officer, who led the acquisition, according to The New York Times.

Still no word on whether females (millennial or not) like music, and/or whether old Pitchfork articles, reviews, and lists will eventually be paywalled.

Rumors had circulated that Pitchfork was looking for a buyer, but news of the sale still took the media world by surprise today.

The Chicago-based, music-centric media brand, founded by CEO Ryan Schreiber in 1995, includes print and digital media as well as festivals, including its namesake indie music festival held each summer in Chicago (in Union Park) and Paris. The company did recently try to break into film criticism with The Dissolve, although that site was shut down in July.

“We’re incredibly fortunate to have found in Condé Nast a group of people who share every aspect of our focus”, Pitchfork said in a news post announcing the acquisition.

The combination of an influential but independent-minded music site, Pitchfork, with Conde Nast’s aspirational and consumerist titles drew a few strong reactions. “Once integration with Pitchfork is complete, we will evaluate other ways for sharing content, further developing the events business, sharing best practices on driving traffic and creating efficiencies”.