films, launched in April 2008. In July 2010, Pitchfork announced Altered Zones, a blog aggregator devoted to underground and do it yourself music. On May 21, 2011, Pitchfork announced a partnership with Kill Screen, in which Pitchfork would publish some of their articles. Altered Zones was closed on November 30. On December 26, 2012, Pitchfork launched Nothing Major, a website that covered visual arts such as fine art and photography. Nothing Major closed in October 2013. On October 13, 2015, Condé Nast announced that it had acquired Pitchfork. A key aspect of its image, Pitchfork was previously entirely independent, with only two owners: Schreiber and Pitchfork president Chris Kaskie. Following the sale, Schreiber remained as editor-in-chief while Kaskie stayed on as president/publisher. On March 13, 2016, Pitchfork was redesigned. According to an announcement post during the redesign, they said: In July 2017, Pitchforks co-owner and president Chris Kaskie, who also co-created the Chicago and Paris editions of its festival, stepped down. Not too long after Kaskie's departure, Pitchforks longtime executive editor Mark Richardson stepped down. He began writing for the site in 1998 and was employed full-time in 2007. On September 18, 2018, founder Ryan Schreiber stepped down as the site's top editor. He was replaced by Puja Patel as editor-in-chief on October 15, 2018. On January 8, 2019, Schreiber announced he would be exiting the company. In January 2019, Condé Nast announced it would put all its titles, including Pitchfork, behind a paywall by the end of the year, though this did not occur. Influence Publicity and artist popularity Pitchforks opinions have gained increased cultural currency; some in the mainstream media view the site as a barometer of the independent music scene, and positive quotes from its reviews are increasingly used in press releases and affixed to the front of CDs. Some publications have cited Pitchfork in having played a part in "breaking" artists such as Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Interpol, The Go! Team, Junior Boys, The Books, Broken Social Scene, Cold War Kids, Wolf Parade, Tapes 'n Tapes, and Titus Andronicus although the site's true impact on their popularity remains a source of frequent debate. Their influence on the formation of communities for independent artists has led to the term "The Pitchfork Effect". Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic described Pitchfork as "the most influential music publication to emerge in the Internet age". Conversely,