Here in New Orleans, if you want to go out and buy a print magazine, good luck. Newsstands are a thing of the past, and a few bookstores still stock periodicals. the The situation is the same throughout the country. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, the beloved newsstand that had anchored Harvard Square for decades closed in 2019. The nearby Harvard Cobb Bookstore also got rid of its magazine section to make room for more books. College brand sweatshirts and other souvenirs.
The fewer newsstands there are, the more I worry about the country, because magazines are vital to the health of a democracy.
I’m not alone in this opinion. Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” is perhaps the most important political document in history, and is credited with being the intellectual spark of the American Revolution. But while writing his pamphlet, Payne’s day job was as an assistant Magazine editorAnd production of what was then The only magazine in the American colonies. in “Magazine in AmericaIn his editorial, Payne explained that “the magazine, when properly managed, is the nursery of genius.”
Nothing has so general an influence on the morals and morals of the people as the press; From this, as from a spring, streams of vice or virtue flow into a country. And of all publications, none is more precise to improvement or contagion than the periodical publication.
Since Payne’s time, the independent print magazine has served as a platform for voices that challenge orthodoxy. Many prominent American opposition figures served as magazine editors. Edited by WEB DuBois Crisis, The official magazine of the NAACP, which he pledged would not only serve as a “record of the dark races” but would “defend the rights of men, without regard to color or race, for the ideals of American democracy.” Emma Goldman had Mother Earth and H.L. Mencken American mercury. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller were all edited demand, Home Journal of the Transcendentalist Movement. Whenever new, vibrant cultural and intellectual currents emerged, it had its own little magazines. The periodicals’ function as centers of dissent has sometimes placed them at the heart of some of the most important freedom of expression battles, such as the suppression of freedom of expression. masses Magazine during World War I, or the ounce Trial in Britain.
It is difficult to measure the influence of magazines on popular thought or public policy. There are some obvious cases like a The New Yorker review that sparked the war on povertyor Atlantic Essay on “Broken Windows Police” Which sparked a highly controversial crackdown on minor crimes. In the Prospectus for the New National Review, William F. Buckley He lamented That “the New Deal revolution…could not have occurred without the cumulative influence of the nation.” and The New Republic, and a few other publications, on several generations of American universities. Buckley believed that a small magazine could contribute to the revival of the right wing. I did. The National Review’s influence has outweighed its low subscriber numbers It can be said “I helped create and nurture the modern conservative movement.”
Whatever one thinks of Buckley’s political project, he was right about the role that magazines played in public discourse. That’s part of the reason why, after graduating from law school at TK YEAR, I decided to found a small non-profit print magazine, Current Affairs. It seemed like a fantasy adventure at the time. When I went to see Graydon Carter, then editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, For advice, He told me that printing had no future and that we would fail. (I’m still grateful for his frustration, because it gave me the resolve to move forward.)
Our magazine is now 10 years old and with 55 print issues, and we’re still going strong, thanks to a dedicated community of subscribers. The key to sustaining a print magazine in the digital age is to offer something that has more than just… Information. People can get information in gigabytes for free online. The advantage of printing, like vinyl records, is that it offers something tangible and beautiful. That’s why our magazine includes carefully designed artwork, comics, puzzles, and writing. The advantage of print is not that it is the most efficient mechanism for communicating knowledge, but that it provides a rich and satisfying reading experience.
We are not alone. Jacobins, Lux, protean, Drifting, Hammer and hopeIn our time, a number of independent political and cultural magazines are flourishing. Many of them had printed editions as well, and there was something of a renaissance in them Small print publications.
Fortunately, there are signs that donors and funders are beginning to realize how bleak the world would be without magazines. Open Society Foundations (OSF) Contribute now To support a number of independent journals, including our own, because OSF, as a democracy promotion organization, recognizes how journals enrich our democratic discourse. Criticism, book reviews, and articles may seem trivial compared to investigative journalism. But they are not. It’s where we step back from the news cycle to think about and discuss broader ideas and trends. They were a place for intelligent people “to communicate their studies, and to excite the spirit of invention and emulation,” Payne said.
From the works of Orwell and Eliot toResponsibility of intellectuals“Some of the most enduring cultural works and articles of social criticism originally appeared in independent magazines. Today, some of the best reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been done by small magazines such as Jewish currents And Israel +972. Magazines can inject a bold new idea into general circulation. David GraeberAbout the phenomenon of frivolous jobs“, published in STRIKE SMALL! In 2013, the magazine became so popular that it crashed the magazine’s website, creating an instantly recognizable term.
However, the picture is mixed. Book reviews, for example, are “On the verge of extinction“Newsstands, once.”Mini community centresIt’s a constant struggle for independent magazines to survive, now that we have to compete for audience attention with Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, and Twitch streams. But even though there’s not always enough money to keep the lights on, there’s something romantic and deeply satisfying about being a magazine editor, carrying on a democratic tradition. It extended from Thomas Paine to Partisan review. Whatever happens to American democracy, our little magazines will always do their best to keep it alive.