Liverpool has seen an explosion of new media outlets in the last three years. Once, the choice was between gaudy fashion catalogues or a few raggedy fanzines that a young enthusiast had made using a photocopier, but now the city's creative media are booming.
The Scottish listings magazine the Skinny is launching a north-west England edition, covering both Liverpool and Manchester. But it joins an already crowded market, with blogs and magazines such as SevenStreets, Bido Lito!, the Double Negative and the Anfield Wrap already catering for the city's culturally savvy residents.
What has led to this growth in this independent arts journalism? Some say it's the legacy of the 2008 Capital of Culture year. Others will say it's down to the art just getting better.
David Lloyd. "I think it's hard to de-couple the Capital of Culture year with the growth in art and culture, but I'd argue that the year grew out of the culture, not the other way around" says David Lloyd, one of the co-founders of SevenStreets.com.
"Liverpool, I guess like most cities, has its own biorhythms. Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down. We're definitely on the upswing now. And I think we reflect that. I often wonder what SevenStreets would have been writing about if we'd have been operating then, and I'm fairly sure less than 20% of our content would have been generated by the year's big ticket events."
Lloyd set up SevenStreets with a Twitter friend, Robin Brown, when he became frustrated with his employers' insistence on featuring perma-tanned Wags in their entertainment supplements. Among the arts previews, music reviews and interviews lie a few journalistic gems. Lloyd's review of the restaurant Prego is a joy to read and, of course, the ill-fated Desperate Scousewives received a punishing write-up.
Last July, SevenStreets published a piece criticising another publication of not paying funds promised to a charity. It was a fine piece of journalism, but due to a legal dispute with the accused, nobody can read it anymore.
Craig Pennington of Bido Lito!. Bido Lito! is a monthly music magazine currently working on its 31st issue. It began when editor Craig Pennington left Leeds to move back to Liverpool and found a void in the city's music press.
"I had seen what a key role the local indie music press had during the Yorkshire boom of the mid 2000s, so I was surprised to see a void in the Liverpool scene. I knew something like Bido Lito! was needed. After deliberating for a few weeks about whether I really wanted to run a magazine. I worked out some figures based on similar 'zines around the UK, I just thought 'what's the worst that can happen?'.
"Liverpool's cultural journalism and indie press has boomed in recent years. I can think of around 15 titles that have come, gone and stuck around. It's really marvellous to see and it's a benefit to the city's creative scene. An indigenous grassroots media helps to validate what goes on in a city, it provides it with infrastructure and tangibility.
"Plus the fact that Liverpool's music and arts scene is so very buoyant as well. It creates a toxic mix of subject and desire."
Mike Pinnington was a contributor for both Bido Lito! and SevenStreets before setting up the Double Negative with his partner Laura Robertson.
"The Double Negative is a space where on any given day you can find a really thought-provoking and quite academic piece, sat alongside comment on the industry, critical writing and listings," says Pinnington. "There's something for everyone with an interest in a serious look at the arts; we have a real interest in promoting Liverpool as an ambitious, connected and outward-looking city.
"The likes of Trinity Mirror's lack of supportive coverage, for whatever reason, gave rise to the likes of SevenStreets and Bido Lito. They fill gaps that were crying out to be filled. I like to think the Double Negative fills another one."
The Anfield Wrap fills another kind of gap; one that ties music, art and football together. It's certainly only natural for a city that has such passion for the two for the Anfield Wrap to do so, and it seems almost churlish for others not to do the same.
Anfield Wrap staff, with former Liverpool manager Rafa Benítez. Andy Heaton from the site explains: "There are loads of sites, very good ones too, that concentrate solely on the club and the match or alternatively, on niche cultural events. The aim was never to mimic them as they do it far better than we ever could and we'd end up coming across as smartarses. No one takes the site seriously and no one pretends to know better than anyone else."
The Anfield Wrap started, as all good things do, after a conversation over a pint about the influential 'The End' fanzine from the 1980's. Andy enlisted a few friends to help him set up the site and it has snowballed since. Their podcasts have received over two million downloads. Independent cultural journalism in Liverpool looks to be in good hands.
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