BigShinyThing

No more crap joke corner. No more featured song lyrics. No more random questions like, “Do you have any friends called Tarquin?”. No more Pure Pop Fun (in print anyway) — not now that kids spend all their money on ringtones and voting in reality TV shows. We haven’t been this upset since they shut down The Face.

Update: Former Smash Hits editor David Hepworth adds his own obit in The Guardian this week. The lesson?

“In the new issue of Word, popjustice’s Peter Robinson argues that “2006 could be the year when genuinely creative pop music muscles its way back into the mainstream.” Maybe the teen Smash Hits left the party just as it was about to get interesting. We shall never know. What we do know is that the liberal application of all the following failed to save one of the biggest brands in British media: money, market research, cover gifts, brand extensions, TV exposure, sponsorship, expensive redesigns, gondola ends, retail promotions, endless conferences and all the experience in the world.”

Western Union has announced that it no longer be providing a telegram service, after 145 years. Live Science has thoughtfully written the telegram an obituary. Expect the fax to be next — not that it will be lamented.