In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Whither Independent Print Media?

Lisa Jervis

I’ve always loved everything about words put on paper with ink. Not just the way I could carry them on public transit and hand them to my friends, but the way they look and feel and, yes, smell. (I realize I’m exposing myself as a bit of a weirdo here. But, well, work as a magazine publisher for almost your whole adult life and you’ll develop some strange habits. I gotta tell ya, there’s nothing like opening up the first box of the new issue and taking a whiff.) When people started making noises about the death of print back in the late ’90s, it was easy to scoff. Sure, the interwebs were overflowing with all sorts of content and community, but the print world was also thriving, from zines on up.

That was a decade ago.

What with the recent rash of magazine foldings, distro troubles in the book and magazine worlds, and more trouble on the way, it seems the coming death of print might not have been so greatly exaggerated after all. (More interesting items here, not that this is by any means an exhaustive list.)

And it makes me sad. Not to mention it scares the crap out of me.

I cheer the rise of blogs—and I’m 99.44% sure that if Bitch were launching today we’d be online-only—but not only do we still need print for its accessibility and affinity for in-depth analysis, the increasing difficulty of producing noncommercial content bodes ill for feminism and all other social justice movements.

I wish I had some grand conclusion or call to action. But other than the necessary-but-so-very-insufficient “support your local feminist/independent bookstore (if you’re lucky enough to still have one), subscribe and donate to your favorite independent magazines, and buy small-press books,” I’m deeply unsure of the way forward. But there’s got to be one.

16 thoughts on Whither Independent Print Media?

  1. It’s obvious, Lisa: more aggressive courting of corporate advertising and sponsorship! Heh heh…heh…heh.

    Yeah, it’s depressing as hell. I’m interested to see how Herbivore Magazine will fare with their new subscriber-only publishing strategy (biannual print edition, monthly online edition). And then there’s print-on-demand, of course, which MUTE (http://www.metamute.org/) has been doing for a while.

    Also, your post has made me start thinking that I could make a buck or two by starting up the editor porn industry…scratch-n-sniff images of sexy new magazines with that “freshly printed” smell…

  3. as a former paginator, i have to agree, the smell of fresh ink and paper during a prestart is very satisfying.

    i don’t have much insight on the future of print, but i do know that my favorite paper in idaho is boise weekly, and the online version is never as satisfying as the hardcopy i can grab downtown.

  4. Actually I don’t believe that we need to keep magazines and newspapers, the way they are. Which law says that in-depth analysis can only be done in a magazine? What keeps bloggers and online writers from producing good stuff, especially since one can include lots of links?

    Too many times I’ve bought a newspaper and been horrified from the many mistakes I found (spelling and content). Everything printed requires paper, printing, laminating and shipping and for just one or two articles per issue you have a whole board of paper cluttering your appartement.

    What I can see, though, is that one day you might choose from a website those articles you really like and want to read and print them yourself into a proper magazine (with more advanced printers, of course). And since they are online they might send you an email every time they do a follow-up story on your favorite subject.

  6. The publisher of an independent feminist Canadian magazine called cahoots has been talking with me because she’s folding the print version of her mag and wants to develop it online and we’re going to share experiences and resources with online publishing. But we both have a greater dream, and I’ll let you in on it. We want to create an umbrella company that publishes for women. If Hearst can do it, why the hell can’t we?

    I too love print media. I understand your love of the smell – I’m like that standing at the rack on distro day at my fave indie news stand. It doesn’t just smells like ink – it smells like ideas.

  7. Actually I don’t believe that we need to keep magazines and newspapers, the way they are.

    Aside from aesthetics, there’s a certain permanence about printed media. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but you can archive print media, and cite them, knowing full well that this is what so-and-so said at such a date and thought was so important as to be written down. Electronic media scares me in that it can be changed. Maybe it’s a red herring, but there are always revisions and new versions. If want to be able to prove that you said some earth-shattering shit back in Fall 2004, e-media just doesn’t do it for me.

    If Hearst can do it, why the hell can’t we?

    Word.

  8. You can definitely become a Bitch supporter. I understand how it can seem kind of silly to make monthly donations to a magazine that you already pay to have delivered to you, but we really do have to take into account that they are one of the only printed feminist forms of media left. On a national level, it’s pretty much down to them and Ms. (which I also encourage you to support). Basically, if you love an indy mag, make sure to get a subscription, and if you can send in donations and buy subscriptions for like-minded friends.

  9. As great as the net is, I think it can only be a means and not and end. Heck, WORDS are only means, not ends.

    Both print and online media have the ability to bring people together, but in different ways. I will admit to spending way too much time at home in bed by myself reading blogs, but although you can make lots of arguments about how the blogs bring people together like never before, it just doesn’t feel tangible.

    And – let’s be clear – there is a reason the government is taking steps to make independent publishers go away. Indy print is a serious threat to those in power. They know it, and they’re very clear on it. The question is, do we?

  10. Electronic media scares me in that it can be changed.

    That also means that errors are not written in stone anymore. Just because it’s in the newspaper it’s not necessarily true and I’ve seen some articles so full of mistakes and errors that I definitely prefer to have an [Update] next to it.

    Btw Slate has a similar thought going on, just a bit more focused on bigger newspapers.

  11. These are all great points. Obviously print media can’t go on doing what it’s doing, both because of economic and political realities (blogs are simply better at some things than print), so how can we make sure that print sticks around to do what it can do that other forms can’t?

    Which law says that in-depth analysis can only be done in a magazine? What keeps bloggers and online writers from producing good stuff, especially since one can include lots of links?

    Nothing at all keeps online writers from producing great stuff. But most people’s patience for reading online is limited—because of the physical reality of reading onscreen, not to mention all the places (ther bathroom, the subway) it’s hard to take your electronic media and the fact that a fair number of people already spend the day looking at screens for work. And most blogs are designed to respond to and comment on things that are happening now now now right now this minute, which is a pace not conducive to in-depth analysis.

    I am by no means saying that this means blogs and other online media can’t do in-depth analysis. Just that most don’t. I’m also not saying that magazines automatically do this well. Far too many don’t do it, either—and the number of mags that do is shrinking.

    But we both have a greater dream, and I’ll let you in on it. We want to create an umbrella company that publishes for women. If Hearst can do it, why the hell can’t we?

    This is an exciting possibility (and I’d be more than happy to help with any advice I can give from my years in the independent publishing world [you can e-mail me at my name at delightfullycranky dot com]). Trudi, please tell us more! The idea of a feminist answer to glossy media is obviously appealing. Unfortunately (and I don’t mean to be discouraging, though my cynicism is hard-won), there are lots of reasons why the Hearsts and Conde Nasts of the world can thrive while politicized, noncommercial independents starve (see Erin’s comment, above; the U.S. postal service issues, which affect Canadian media, too, if they have U.S. readers; simple economies of scale).

    Not that that means I don’t think we can do anything about this sorry state of affairs. BJH really hit the nail on the head here:

    Indy print is a serious threat to those in power. They know it, and they’re very clear on it. The question is, do we?

    It’s an ongoing struggle to make non-media folks—readers, donors, and funders—understand a) the challenges of getting a project written (or recorded, ’cause this is true of all forms of media), distributed, etc. and b) how important media (and especially print media) is to movement building.

    The right understands this. It’s why they have been pouring money into media projects and punditry training for decades. Progressives haven’t paid as much attention, and the chickens are coming home to roost. (See Matt Bai’s “Wiring the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy,” NYTimes magazine, July 25, 2004. I’m including all info for searching purposes but not linking b/c you need to be registered and have a premium account for access.)

    And here’s another great piece I should have included in yesterday’s links.

    And more orgs doing great work related to these issues: Allied Media Projects; Women, Action, and the Media.

  12. not to mention all the places (ther bathroom, the subway) it’s hard to take your electronic media

    That’s why I say that online and magazines will merge into some kind of DIY. But hey, no one really expected that people could use the gas station without an attendant and the days of telephone operator are long gone, too.

  13. I’m both old-fashioned and perilously sentimental, and I hate to think that future generations may not know the same joy I do at stumbling upon a really fabulous used bookstore. And as much as I lament the killing of trees and embrace the expanding reach of the internet (I can’t eat my morning cereal without my morning blogs), the elegance and permanence of print media still commands a reverence from me that things on computer screens seldom do. When I was still calling myself a writer—and I fully recognize the skewed priorities I’m about to represent—nothing made my work seem as real or as worthwhile as seeing it on someone else’s paper in someone else’s font.

    Of course, I felt similarly nostalgic about my typewriter for a long time, too. But besides honoring the aesthetic/historical/sentimental value of books and magazines and newspapers, we ought to keep in mind that there are still a whole lot of people in the world without easy online access. I do a little bit of volunteer work with a population chiefly composed of poor immigrants, and the internet is utterly foreign to most of them. The decline of print media will be particularly tragic if it helps widen further the resource gap between the rich and the rest.

    [P.S. Hi Lisa! It’s Eliza from Oberlin!]

  14. I love Bitch magazine and will seriously cry if it ever stops being published. I subscribe and donate the small amount I can afford, and can’t wait until I have enough money to donate more.

  15. Pingback: Feministe » Media for women: what will we support?

  16. But besides honoring the aesthetic/historical/sentimental value of books and magazines and newspapers, we ought to keep in mind that there are still a whole lot of people in the world without easy online access. I do a little bit of volunteer work with a population chiefly composed of poor immigrants, and the internet is utterly foreign to most of them.

    This is totally key. It’s easy to think of digital media as cheaper and easier for audiences to access because so much of it is free—once you’ve invested at least several hundred and usually closer to one thousand and up in your technology, not to mention the monthly ISP fees. It’s true that in the U.S., where there are good libraries there is generally decent public internet access, but that’s so far from enough for access to be both widespread and meaningful.

    But anyone with six bucks and change can walk into a bookstore and walk out with a magazine.

    I’m not saying that’s six dollars an insignificant amount of money, or that affordability of independent print media is a non-issue. But it’s cheaper than a computer or time in an internet cafe.

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