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THE OLDEST MUSIC magazine in the United States, and the only one to provide regular nationwide coverage of concert performances in recent years, is up for sale.
"We are actively looking for a buyer for Musical America," William Bang, the president of NILS Publications Co., which owns the magazine, confirmed in a telephone interview from his office in Chatsworth, Calif. Bang said the price was "not established" and refused to elaborate. "We're working on a lot of things," he said. "We may have more information toward of the end of the week."
Whatever the outcome for Musical America, its sale is yet another indication that this has been a catastrophic time for the classical music press. Opus, Keynote and Ovation - well-established, if hardly thriving, magazines only five years ago - have recently folded.
In 1989, ABC sold High Fidelity to Hachette Publications Inc. - the owners of Stereo Review, its long-time competitor - which promptly closed it down. Only one new general interest music magazine, Classical, owned by the Manhattan-based Unique Communications Inc., has been launched in the last few years.
Musical America, founded as a weekly newspaper in 1898, is currently published...