Adelaide street title Rip It Up closing

After 27 years on reporting on South Australia’s music, arts and lifestyle, Adelaide-based Rip It Up is going dark on June 30.

Its Online Editor Walter Marsh explained, “Rip It Up stopped publishing in print in (April) 2014 to focus on digital content. Unfortunately, digital advertising revenue did not follow our online experience.

The masthead’s publisher, Opinion Media, which invested a substantial amount of money in the on-line version, will continue to cover music and art scene through The Adelaide Review and Clique Mag. A new online home for Rip It Up’s gig guide will be revealed “over the next month”, Marsh said.

Rip It Up was founded in 1989 as a free street-magazine-style gig guide initially as a 10-pager and available in clubs, pubs and cafes. It expanded to a wider coverage of album reviews, interviews, music, arts and film news as well as the local food and drinks scene.

Rip It Up’s demise follows that of db Magazine which closed two years ago. The Adelaide scene is now covered by B-Side, a print version run by Robert Dunstan, who worked for Rip It Up for 20 years and was its editor for 12 years.