> Max Elbaum was just here talking about War Times (those crazy kids, starting a paper these days) and he said that when they decided to crank that up, the post 9-11 problem seemed to be that one group of people--the hooked-in news junkies--were receiving 20 substantive emails a day about Afghanistan, etc., but the vast majority weren't getting anything but TV news or NPR--so they decided there's still an audience for hand-distributed print media.
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> I had to agree since the local monthly I co-edit with a humble circulation of 5,000 has been flying out of the racks the last three issues--we can't keep up. (All three had Iraq war cover stories). From conversations, I've found people are hungry for real news and want better sources on the war. Take my word for it, our prose is not that scintillating, although we do try to not just address other lefties. And the paper does have a lifelong ban on the word 'plight,' which can't hurt.
Oh, sure, there is a huge demand for lefty and radical literature. Every left newspaper and magazine I know of never has a problem with unsold copies lying around. Many of our magazines are available on newstands, even in corporate bookstores.
We could get more publications out there, including books, but we have to address some serious hidden problems. That big problem is financial. There is enough content and writers and artists out there to create a dozen or more monthly magazines, but many of the more radical projects stagger along on a quarterly basis. The problem is lack of money to publish more frequently and that means money to compensate a few people to be full time or part time staff. I know that I'm busy all day long with radical publishing and cyberactivism, but I get little money to support me and the only reason I can do this is because I can't find work, If I found a full time job, I wouldn't have any time to spend on radical publishing. I'd be busy most of the day at work and at night working on a magazine or book would be the last thing I'd want to do.
I don't know what the answer is, but the right wing over the years has been able to raise millions to support its vast publishing and media projects.
Chuck0
------------------------------------------------------------ Personal homepage -> http://chuck.mahost.org/ Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ MutualAid.org -> http://www.mutualaid.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ Anarchy: AJODA -> http://www.anarchymag.org/
"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free..." ---Utah Phillips