BACK IN ACTION II:

Creem magazine is resuming publication in January, following a nine-month suspension because of declining readership, with new management and a new focus.

Marvin Jarrett, Creem’s publisher/executive editor, wants the magazine to be neither as narrowly-focused as the old Creem, which vied with Circus as the leading hard rock/metal magazine, nor as broad in its coverage as Rolling Stone, which has turned into a pop culture journal with significant space devoted to film, politics, fashion and life style issues as well as music.

“There’s room in the market for an adult music magazine that doesn’t stray too far from its theme,” said Jarrett, who noted that the target readership will be in the 21-44 age bracket and that 80% of the space will be devoted to music--including consumer electronics and hardware.

Added Jarrett, who worked at Creem for six months as ad manager before it ceased publication, “We don’t want to be just a metal magazine. We want to cover music as diverse as new age and jazz, which for the old Creem would have been totally unheard of.”

“We’ll have to wait and see if this broad scope catches on,” said Cary Baker, Capitol Records’ national director of media and artist relations and a former rock writer for various publications--including Creem. “Personally, I can’t imagine a paper that deals with both new age and hard rock, but maybe there’s a way to make it work.”

Baker said that the industry will be rooting for the magazine. “We’re sorely lacking a magazine to capture the rock’n’roll spirit with literacy and depth of scope. Creem provided that spirit for two decades and let’s hope that the new Creem can form a tone all of its own and maybe borrow some of what was essential about it before.”