Goodbye magazines
March 6, 2007 12:35 AM Subscribe
The Independent Press Association is officially dead. It's demise was a long time coming. The future of small magazines looks pretty bleak.
If you want a good idea ruined....give it to a committee or start becoming like a big multinational media outlet where the focus is on profits and spreading propaganda for even bigger multinational corporations / despot based governments
posted by Prunedish at 12:43 AM on March 6, 2007
posted by Prunedish at 12:43 AM on March 6, 2007
Good to see. I'm tired of independents. Conglomerates are more customer focused.
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 1:26 AM on March 6, 2007
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 1:26 AM on March 6, 2007
"small magazine" != "social justice magazine".
There are a lot of small magazines that are doing just fine, such as Model Railroader, and Sky and Telescope.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:50 AM on March 6, 2007
There are a lot of small magazines that are doing just fine, such as Model Railroader, and Sky and Telescope.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:50 AM on March 6, 2007
There are a lot of small magazines that are doing just fine, such as Model Railroader, and Sky and Telescope.
So, we can assume that these two you've mentioned don't have to rely on the IDPA for their distribution? Just asking.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:06 AM on March 6, 2007
So, we can assume that these two you've mentioned don't have to rely on the IDPA for their distribution? Just asking.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:06 AM on March 6, 2007
Such hard-hitting exposés in Model Railroader — I had no idea that corrupt oligarch tycoons were killing the industry!
posted by blasdelf at 4:12 AM on March 6, 2007
posted by blasdelf at 4:12 AM on March 6, 2007
sidereal, I feel your pain, brother, i feel your pain. But regarding misuse of apostrophes, the problem is so widespread throughout the internets, you see, that you'd have to post your little cartoon link in virtually every thread on every site of the world wide web. Now, you're not gonna actually do that, are ya?
P.S. Hell of a thing about this magazine distribution problem, eh?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:19 AM on March 6, 2007
P.S. Hell of a thing about this magazine distribution problem, eh?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:19 AM on March 6, 2007
The future of small magazines looks pretty bleak.
Unless you include electronic small magazines, which are cheap to make and distribute. If it's a cause the magazine is pushing and the staff are willing to donate their work to the cause, the cost is almost zero per copy read. Encourage libraries to subscribe at low rates for the electronic version and to print their own copies rather than ask them to pay the high cost of distant printing and long-distance shipping. You have to sell shoes during the day to pay the bills, but your word gets out.
But if the magazine staff wants to earn a living selling magazines through normal capitalist channels (from printers to stores), that's a different story. When you play the capitalist game, you have to charge enough for Anarchist's Monthly to keep the lights on at staffer homes and at the Anarchist's Monthly World Headquarters building, pay all the other people between writer and reader, and find enough anarchy fans willing and able to pay that much every month to read your stuff. If you can't, you lose.
posted by pracowity at 7:06 AM on March 6, 2007
Unless you include electronic small magazines, which are cheap to make and distribute. If it's a cause the magazine is pushing and the staff are willing to donate their work to the cause, the cost is almost zero per copy read. Encourage libraries to subscribe at low rates for the electronic version and to print their own copies rather than ask them to pay the high cost of distant printing and long-distance shipping. You have to sell shoes during the day to pay the bills, but your word gets out.
But if the magazine staff wants to earn a living selling magazines through normal capitalist channels (from printers to stores), that's a different story. When you play the capitalist game, you have to charge enough for Anarchist's Monthly to keep the lights on at staffer homes and at the Anarchist's Monthly World Headquarters building, pay all the other people between writer and reader, and find enough anarchy fans willing and able to pay that much every month to read your stuff. If you can't, you lose.
posted by pracowity at 7:06 AM on March 6, 2007
I ain't buying the bit about the bleak future of small magazines. The future looks pretty rosy here at Virginia Quarterly Review, and the same appears to be true for many of our peers. IMHO, the web has made that possible -- it's the best promotion and distribution medium evah.
posted by waldo at 7:21 AM on March 6, 2007
posted by waldo at 7:21 AM on March 6, 2007
"Unless you include electronic small magazines, which are cheap to make and distribute."
And don't pay to write for. Which is why the demise of small, socially-conscious mags that DO pay is troubling to those of us who write best for that niche.
But, what, Full Moon Distributors went belly-up last year, right? That sunk a shit-ton of great mags. This kinda sucks...
posted by klangklangston at 8:40 AM on March 6, 2007
And don't pay to write for. Which is why the demise of small, socially-conscious mags that DO pay is troubling to those of us who write best for that niche.
But, what, Full Moon Distributors went belly-up last year, right? That sunk a shit-ton of great mags. This kinda sucks...
posted by klangklangston at 8:40 AM on March 6, 2007
Waldo— How about magazines not funded by universities? Not that yours isn't a decent read (just starting to skim now), but it doesn't seem like you're solely paying printers through ads, y'know?
posted by klangklangston at 8:42 AM on March 6, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 8:42 AM on March 6, 2007
How about magazines not funded by universities? Not that yours isn't a decent read (just starting to skim now), but it doesn't seem like you're solely paying printers through ads, y'know?
Ah, so now we can see that the discussion is considerably more nuanced than "the future of small magazines looks pretty bleak." George Core, editor of the Sewanee Review, wrote "Quarterlies and the Future of Reading" for the Summer 2003 issue of VQR that addresses the question of what will become of small literary journals, looking specifically at quarterlies, considering both university and private publications.
posted by waldo at 8:55 AM on March 6, 2007
Ah, so now we can see that the discussion is considerably more nuanced than "the future of small magazines looks pretty bleak." George Core, editor of the Sewanee Review, wrote "Quarterlies and the Future of Reading" for the Summer 2003 issue of VQR that addresses the question of what will become of small literary journals, looking specifically at quarterlies, considering both university and private publications.
posted by waldo at 8:55 AM on March 6, 2007
I believe that it's possible for small presses to succeed. Not every small press is associated with a university.
Though maybe the bar for "success" needs to be lowered to include "non profits" or "volunteer-run" that still manage to, y'know, publish writers.
posted by shownomercy at 2:51 PM on March 6, 2007
Though maybe the bar for "success" needs to be lowered to include "non profits" or "volunteer-run" that still manage to, y'know, publish writers.
posted by shownomercy at 2:51 PM on March 6, 2007
Well, I think the bigger story here is that the IPA was torpedoed by the same type of people who are trying to gain control of PBS/NPR and other alternative news sources that aren't beholden to a corporate master.
And as Klangston said, those of us who write, or who do investigative work for media outside the "mainstream" press have one less channel by which we can provide the information we gather. (In my case the tense should be "wrote", as I gave up journalism as a dirty habit.)
"...electronic small magazines, which are cheap to make and distribute..." don't pay writers. Oh, they make promises sometimes, but I can't tell you the number of times I've been approached to write a massive article for the "publicity", or been offered copies of the magazine as compensation, and then those "small publishers" are offended when I say that I don't have time to work for free.
Losing the IPA is a huge blow to small publishers, indie writers and content creators, and the public at large.
posted by dejah420 at 9:45 PM on March 6, 2007
And as Klangston said, those of us who write, or who do investigative work for media outside the "mainstream" press have one less channel by which we can provide the information we gather. (In my case the tense should be "wrote", as I gave up journalism as a dirty habit.)
"...electronic small magazines, which are cheap to make and distribute..." don't pay writers. Oh, they make promises sometimes, but I can't tell you the number of times I've been approached to write a massive article for the "publicity", or been offered copies of the magazine as compensation, and then those "small publishers" are offended when I say that I don't have time to work for free.
Losing the IPA is a huge blow to small publishers, indie writers and content creators, and the public at large.
posted by dejah420 at 9:45 PM on March 6, 2007
Bingo bango bongo, Dejah.
posted by klangklangston at 9:58 PM on March 6, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 9:58 PM on March 6, 2007
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posted by serazin at 12:37 AM on March 6, 2007