A message to our readers: we’re here to stay

Dear Sight & Sound readers,

In these uncertain and unstable times, publishing a magazine is difficult. Some might even call it trivial. The scale of the Covid-19 pandemic is still difficult to grasp, and no part of life is business-as-usual. This affects us all.

We continue to believe, however, that no other media creates the same sense of identity, community and togetherness that specialist magazines do, and so we want to let you know that as this crisis continues, we are committed to seeing it through and continuing to bring you the same level of criticism and journalism that you’ve come to expect from Sight & Sound over the past 88 years.

The distribution and retail of our monthly magazine has already been affected and may be affected further. As a result we’ve adjusted our publishing schedule and made changes to our online shop to ensure we can operate as effectively as possible in this challenging new world.

Our new May 2020 issue, which is available digitally from Monday 6 April and in print from Thursday April 9, will be on sale for six weeks rather than four. It will be followed by a summer double issue, much bigger than your usual monthly Sight & Sound and on sale for two months.

In the UK, the magazine will be on shelves of newsagents and supermarkets that remain open. UK subscribers shouldn’t see any significant delay in receiving their copies. International sales and subscriptions may be affected due to shipping restrictions. Please email s&s@bfi.org.uk with any questions relating to this.

We’ll be reviewing the situation on a weekly basis and making any necessary tweaks to this plan accordingly.

From Friday 3 April, we are launching a brand new weekly newsletter. In a tip of the cap to our past, we’re calling it the Weekly Film Bulletin, and it’ll land in your inboxes every Friday. Expect a mix of bespoke new articles, links to the best of our new and improved digital output and some classic features from Sight & Sound’s almost nine decade archive. To sign up click here.

From here on in we’ll be more active on our social channels, posting new and archive articles as well as reviews and recommendations of the best screen culture to enjoy as you get yourselves through the next few months.

We’re very fortunate that so many of our print readers are already subscribers. We’re committed to continuing to produce the magazine, and grateful to them that while the newsstand and advertising markets may not be there for us right now, their loyal support provides the bedrock for us to do so.

But the longer this situation goes on, the more pressure there will be and the less secure our position will be. And so if you would like to support and help us through this crisis, please consider becoming a subscriber yourself, or if you already are, please do renew.

Our collective love of cinema is already helping us through this dark time, and we look forward to continuing to contribute something to that in print, online and in your inbox.

• To subscribe to Sight & Sound in print or digitally, click here
• To sign up to our Weekly Film Bulletin newsletter, click here

Yours in fellowship, resilience and hope,

Mike Williams, Editor in Chief, Sight & Sound

PS, viva cinema!