JazzTimes is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Davidson Sabin as a newsletter called Radio Free Jazz. Sabin founded Radio Free Jazz to complement his Washington, D.C. record store that he founded in 1962. As a newsletter, it informed consumers of the latest jazz releases and provided jazz broadcasters with news and backstories related to playlists.
Coverage
After a decade of growth in subscriptions, deepening of writer pools, and internationalization, Radio Free Jazz expanded its focus and, at the suggestion of jazz critic Leonard Feather, changed its name to JazzTimes in 1980. One of Ira Sabin's two sons, Glenn, joined the magazine staff in 1984. In 1990, JazzTimes created a new look that incorporated exclusive cover photography and higher quality art and graphic design. Its coverage includes reviews of audio and video releases, concerts, instruments, music supplies, and books. It also features a guide to artists, events, record labels, and music schools.
Web traffic
JazzTimes.com was redesigned in 2019. Among its most popular stories are the JazzTimes10, which look at the "Top 10" of a specific categories of jazz, from Christmas songs to tunes from the Loft Jazz era. Also popular are its annual critics and readers polls of the top artists, albums and songs in jazz. JazzTimes.com's most successful month was in February 2015, when it registered more than half a million pageviews. In 2019, it registered 3,736,397 pageviews with 65% of its traffic direct and a quarter of it from organic search.
Guthrie Inc. was the founding company of the magazine and suspended JazzTimes' publication in June 2009. Later that year, JazzTimes was acquired by Madavor Media, LLC, a Delaware company based in Quincy, Massachusetts. Madavor Media relaunched the magazine the same year. Lee C. Mergner — who was Associate Publisher of JazzTimes from as early as 1994 till sometime after September 1999 — became publisher as early as 2001. Glenn D. Sabin, one of Ira's sons, was the publisher when the magazine was sold in 2009, and Jeffrey H. Sabin, Ira's other son, was general manager at the time. Mac Randall was named editor in chief in 2018 after Mergner stepped down from his role. Mergner remains a part-time employee for JazzTimes.
