Save Small Magazines!

In the midst of hundreds of cable channels, a full dial of radio stations, and maybe billions of webpages, investigative journalism and thoughtful cultural and political analysis still thrives more in small magazines and newspapers more than in any other medium. I'm thinking of magazines ranging from Mother Jones to The Nation to Bitch to the International Socialist Review . Yes, blogs too can be good spots for analysis but not much yet in the way of investigative journalism and blog posts (like this one) are usually whipped out with much less care than a well-written magazine article (not that speed is always bad, but it has its disadvantages for sure).

Whether such magazines, or newspapers, are in danger of becoming obsolete in an Internet age, I really don't know. Certainly, such a dodo bird fate does not seem imminent just because of the net. But there's a new threat on the horizon for small magazines in the U.S. - a proposal for post rate hikes that will hit small publishers especially hard. The postal service initially proposed a plan for an across-the-board rate hike of 11.5% for all magazines, which most magazines had been prepared to accept. But then instead of accepting this plan proposed by the postal service itself, the Postal Regulatory Commission (a separate entity in charge of determining rates) decided to accept a modified version of a proposal put forward by media giant Time Warner. Time-Warner, of course, happens to own Time and People, two of the highest circulating magazines in the U.S.

The Time-Warner plan is very complicated and has all the smacks of neoliberal paternalism, rewarding publishers for good behavior, like bundling mail to be sent in particular areas, generating their own special labels, etc. But what these rewards end up doing is none other than providing further advantage to corporatization and large-scale operations. The complexity of the calculations makes it hard to know exactly what the hike will be for each magazine, but a study by McGraw-Hill estimated that many small magazines would see a 20-30% hike instead of the 10-12% that that they expected (see a press release from Sen. Sanders: http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0501-03.htm). Presumably, Time and People would do rather well under the new plan. Small magazines had very little time to comment on this plan before it was accepted; it is set to go in effect July 15th. Now, magazines across the political spectrum from the National Review to The Nation are banning together to fight this hike. Many magazines are saying these rate hikes will force them to fold. The best site for information about this issue and ways to get involved is the Free Press's page: http://action.freepress.net/freepress/postal_explanation.html.

As media activist and historian Robert McChesney reminds us, it's important to remember than from the beginning of the U.S. postal system, postal rates for small magazines and newspapers have always been subsidized. The need for this is to foster a public sphere and the circulation of diverse views and information. Let’s not give up on print culture just yet!

I've cross-posting this entry on Matt May's Socialism for Gunslinger:
http://democraticgunslinger.blogspot.com/.

Hopefully, I'll soon figure out how to get my links back up!