Short answers, pulled from the story.
Kerrang! was first published on the 6th of June 1981 as a one-off "Heavy Metal Special" supplement within the Sounds newspaper. The issue sold out within days, prompting Spotlight Publications to launch it as a standalone monthly magazine, which later became weekly in 1987.
Kerrang! journalist Malcolm Dome coined the term "thrash metal" in print, applying it to the Anthrax song "Metal Thrashing Mad". Before Dome's coinage, Metallica's James Hetfield had described their sound as "power metal".
Kerrang! overtook NME as the best-selling music weekly in the United Kingdom in 2001, bolstered by its coverage of nu metal. By mid-2002, the magazine had a weekly circulation of 83,988 copies.
Kerrang! suspended its weekly print edition on the 13th of March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after publishing a total of 1,818 issues. A quarterly print edition was revived in December 2021.
Kerrang! has been owned by Wasted Talent Ltd since April 2017, when Mixmag Media purchased the magazine, its website, and the K! Awards from Bauer Media Group. Wasted Talent also owns the electronic music publication Mixmag.
The K! Pit is a Kerrang! gig concept featuring free shows by popular bands in small London venues, with tickets allocated by random online draw. Kerrang! has also staged K! Pit events in Brooklyn, New York, with performances streamed on the Kerrang! Facebook page and later uploaded to YouTube.