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Paste's pitch to readers: Help save us
By Diego Vasquez
May 19, 2009 - 1:10:02 AM
More than 150 magazines have closed this year, including titles like Portfolio and Travel + Leisure Golf. Hoping to avoid joining that body count, Paste magazine has come up with an innovative way to raise much-needed capital. Last Thursday the independently owned music magazine added a link to its web site asking readers for donations. “The global recession has taken its toll on Paste as advertisers have slashed their spending,” reads the web appeal. “We are turning to our readers to help bridge the gap.” In return, the magazine is offering exclusive digital tracks donated by artists including the Indigo Girls, Robyn Hitchcock and The Decemberists. The gimmick has gotten coverage in newspapers across the country, coming just a few years after Paste offered a pay-what-you-like magazine subscription drive. But whether it will be enough to keep the magazine afloat, even with a host of other cost-cutting measures being adopted, remains to be seen. Josh Jackson, editor in chief of Paste magazine, talks to Media Life about how much money must be raised, how advertisers and freelancers have also pitched in, and what the future holds for magazines.
How did you come up with the donation idea? Were there any other ideas floated to help the magazine stay alive that you rejected?
We’d gotten a few emails from readers who’d seen other magazines fold over this year asking us to please ask for help if it ever came to that. We’ve talked to various investors over the last year, but as the stock market came crashing down, most of those conversations had slowed.
When it came to the point that we weren’t going to be able to pay for the next issue to be printed, our choices were to tell our staff to go home or ask for help.
A couple years ago Paste did a pay-what-you-want subscription drive, which got a lot of publicity. How are you promoting this donorship drive?
We’ve emailed everyone on our mailing list, Twittered like crazy, contacted everyone we’ve known and watched it spread like wildfire.
A publicist from Susan Blond volunteered to take our message to daily newspapers, and artists have blogged and Tweeted about it as well. The press has ranged from AP and CNN.com to Gawker and Perez Hilton.
What made you believe that, in the current economic environment, readers would be willing to open their wallets for you?
We have a very passionate and engaged readership. We didn’t know if that would translate into donations, but so far it has.
What response have you heard from readers? What about advertisers?
It’s been amazing.
We first reached out to artists and were encouraged by their response in giving us exclusive songs for donors and volunteering to spread the word.
Then I contacted freelance writers and photographers who we owed money, letting them know what we were doing. More than a dozen responded by donating what we owed them.
And then I’ve been further humbled and encouraged by our readers, who’ve not only given, but given generously. A $1 donation gets you access to more than 90 rare tracks from some very cool bands. But we’ve had more $50 donations than $1 donations.
We were nervous that a Save Paste campaign would scare off potential advertisers, but the first one to respond was a beer company that said they’d come in with an additional page to help us out and even pay half in advance.
A few record labels stepped up to the plate with more ads, too.
What other measures are you taking to raise money or cut costs?
We had our deputy editor move to Ireland and our marketing director go off to get her Harvard MBA and we haven’t replaced them. Adding a digital sampler [of the issue’s music for subscribers] and making the physical CD an opt-in for subscribers is a huge savings that took too long to implement because we wanted to give our readers significant time to sign up.
We’ve also gone from 11 to 12 issues, but six of those will now be a mini-sized single-topic issue beginning with our Summer Festival Guide in June. It won’t go on the newsstand but will get some free distribution on college campuses (and help us solidify that market). And we’re leasing out some of our office space and cutting out all non-essential travel.
How much money do you hope to raise from this effort?
We haven’t published a specific goal because there's a difference between surviving to publish another day and getting on more solid financial footing. Both are in the low six-figures.
What are your options if you do not raise enough money?
Hoping that this effort drums up investor interest or closing the doors. But with the response we've gotten so far, I’m hopeful that it won’t come to that.
Obviously this has been a rough couple of years for many magazines. What goes through your head when you see other print magazines, like your competitor, Blender, end their print editions?
My heart breaks because I know what goes into magazine publishing.
Paste has been our baby. We’ve seen it grow from the tiniest publishing venture to one of the largest rock magazines in the world, thanks to a devoted readership and a talented group of contributors. I don’t ever want to see it go away, and I know other editors and publishers feel the same way about their magazines.
Do you think, once the economy comes back, that advertisers will too, or are we looking at an entirely different environment for print?
I think advertisers will come back. It’s still a great medium.
Throughout the recession, readers have remained engaged and continue to have more trust in magazines than other medium, even young people.
But I also think the magazine model is going to have to depend more on subscribers for stability. We don’t want to be in this position ever again.
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