independent magazines

Bitch magazine turns fifteen this year (which is no small feat in today's publishing world!), and to celebrate, we're offering high-quality prints of fifteen of our favorite covers for sale online. There's a lot a beautiful artwork to choose from--which print is your favorite? Click through to vote!

Sadly, $pread, the all volunteer-run quarterly written by and for sex workers, posted yesterday that they can no longer sustain their magazine:

We regret to inform you that...$pread will close its glittery doors soon after the dawn of the New Year...We apologize for those of you who have only recently come to know us, and to all our longtime supporters. After all these years, five all-volunteer years to be exact, we have come to the conclusion that an all-volunteer magazine is simply unsustainable in the current publishing climate. Short of a donation of $30,000, we will be unable to sustain the magazine past January.

Original Plumbing, a new magazine published and distributed out of San Francisco, is a fresh new publication dedicated to FTM sexuality and culture. Made for trans men by trans men, its first issue ("The Bedroom Issue") came out in October and features voices from five rooms and a couple different continents, with content ranging from interviews to fiction to a detailed summary of how Germany's health care system helps transitioning. They're off to a great start, and I asked editor-in-chief/photographer Amos Mac and assistant editor Rocco Kayiatos (who raps as Katastrophe) a few questions about future plans for ORIGINAL PLUMBING.

Even though our sign got jacked a few days ago (we're gonna find you, s***bags!), Bitch Media's week has been pretty rosy. A successful subscription campaign, a new issue coming down the pipeline, and now a great write-up from the independent magazine for independent magazines, UTNE reader! Danielle Maestrettie couldn't have concluded her piece better: "Take a cue from Bitch and put your fate in your readers’ hands." Our readers have consistently supported us, and as Maestretti pointed out, it's you, not our advertisers, whose support (financial and emotional!) has allowed us to ride the shifting tide of newsprint.

Like our Save Bitch campaign, our readers exceeded our expectations to help sustain Bitch. Over five hundred people subscribed or renewed in two weeks, supporting the magazine AND saving some bucks before the subscription price increased (and for price-per-ounce cheapskates like me, that's a win!), proving once again not only how much you care, but that our readers are the real reason Bitch is just staying afloat. We really feel like the luckiest folks around for having the best readers, subscribers, Twitter followers, letter-writers, etc!

Maestretti got another thing right--we are back! While folks around the office have been anticipating (and editing, proofreading, and laying out) the Consumed issue, it's always fun when we get sent sample copies! We're really excited about the new layout, and it looks like you think so too! Check out sample layouts on our Facebook page!

I've been debating whether I should post this for a few days, but I've decided I must.  

Earlier this week, I went to the Mother Jones website to find an old article I wanted to post here. But my search was interrupted when I saw an ad for Wal-Mart pop up.

An ad for Wal-Mart on the website of a magazine that calls itself:   

An independent nonprofit whose roots lie in a commitment to social justice implemented through first rate investigative reporting.

 

I finally unpacked from last weekend's NCMR, and unloaded the special NCMR tote bag. I've learned from the past couple conferences I've attended that tote bags are apparently a necessary part of every conference. Am I being an ungracious a**hole when I say I find this ridiculous? Sure, tote bags are helpful in organizing all the conference materials and other items handed out at workshops, but don't people bring their own bags?