{{Short description|American Christian music magazine}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | title = True Tunes News | image_file = | image_size = | image_caption = | editor = John J. Thompson | editor_title = | previous_editor = | staff_writer = | frequency = Irregular | circulation = 50,000 | circulation_year= 1993 | category = Christian alternative rock | company = | publisher = | founded = 1989 | finaldate = Winter 1998 | country = United States | based = | language = | website = | issn = }} '''''True Tunes News''''' is a magazine which covered alternative Christian music. It was published between 1989 and Winter 1998.
==Background== John J. Thompson founded in 1998<ref name="cmn">{{cite web|title=True Tunes News|url=http://cmnexus.org/magazines/True_Tunes_News|publisher=CMnexus|accessdate=15 January 2017}}</ref> ''True Tunes News'' out of his Wheaton, Illinois Christian record shop, True Tunes.<ref name="DH_Chase_98-01-12">{{cite news|last=Chase |first=John|date=January 12, 1998|title=Groundbreaking Christian music store becomes a victim of its own success|work=Daily Herald|page=6}}</ref> The store itself, founded in 1989, with Chris Langill, was relatively unique because it focused exclusively on alternative Christian music at a time when Christian bookstores wouldn't carry products based on rock, hip hop, or other hard forms of music.<ref name="DH_Chase_98-01-12"/> In 1995 Thompson founded a live music club for Christian acts called True Tunes Upstairs.<ref name="DH_Edman_97-05-03">{{cite news|last=Edman|first=Catherine|date=May 3, 1997|title=Music scene perks up for Christian bands Coffeehouses give artists, fans an outlet|work=Daily Herald|page=1}}</ref> In 1997 the store, magazine, and related assets were bought by the Charlottesville, VA based company Journey Communications. Journey closed the shop in early 1998 citing lagging sales due to the spread of alternative Christian music to larger retailers, and turned operations to the printed magazine and the internet.<ref name="DH_Chase_98-01-12"/>
Despite competition from ''CCM'', ''HM'', and ''7ball'' magazines ''True Tunes News'' was extremely successful, achieving a worldwide circulation of 50,000 issues by 1993.<ref name="TH_RBW">{{cite book|title=Raised by Wolves: The Story of Christian Rock & Roll|url=https://archive.org/details/raisedbywolvesst0000thom|url-access=registration|last=Thompson|first=John J.|year=2000 |publisher=ECW Press|location=Toronto|isbn=978-1-55022-421-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/raisedbywolvesst0000thom/page/234 234]}}</ref> This made it the largest Christian rock magazine by circulation, a title it held through the late 1990s.<ref name="CT_40_11">{{cite journal|last=Olsen|first=Ted|date=October 7, 1996|title=Too holy for the world, or too worldly for the church? Christian alternative bands look for a home|journal=Christianity Today|issn=0009-5753|volume=40 |issue=11|pages=84–86}}</ref> In the late 1990s the magazine ran into financial trouble when several of the record labels whose advertising financed it<ref name="TH_RBW"/> and it went defunct in 1998.<ref name="cmn"/> When it ceased publishing the editors turned to the internet for distribution, but this effort has now been disbanded.
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Defunct music magazines published in the United States Category:Defunct Christian magazines published in the United States Category:Irregularly published magazines published in the United States Category:Magazines established in 1989 Category:Magazines disestablished in 1998 Category:Defunct magazines published in Illinois
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