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September 19, 2008

Save Bitch!

First ele goes paperless, then Plenty sells out to The Man, now Bitch goes down (maybe). Are there any non-trustarfarian-owned independent magazines left in America?

With thanks to David Nokovic for the tip.

 

Debbie: We are coming to you from the Bitch headquarters in Portland, Oregon to share some bad news that we’re hoping you’ll help us out with.

We’re holding here the current issue of Bitch that was just released a couple weeks ago, and this issue might be the last issue.

Andi: The fact is, we need to raise $40,000 by October 15th.

D: And we know that sounds like a lot of money, and it is a lot of money, but that is about the cost of producing one issue of Bitch.

(music)

A: We were going to tell you about the minutia of the publishing industry and how that consistently impacts Bitch in a negative way.

(music cuts out)

D: But the important thing is that you know that in every step of the way in the magazine publishing world, Bitch, as a small publication, as an independent publication,  and as a feminist publication is at a disadvantage. And everybody probably knows by now that the magazine industry is declining. Bitch has been lucky to fly in the face of those trends for quite some time now, but we are finally seeing those trends affecting us. And so your support as donors is more critical than ever.

A lot of people don’t realize that we are a non-profit and that we depend heavily on donations from our supporters, and a lot of people also don’t realize that the bulk of those donations come in the form of $10, $20, and $30. So, any amount helps.

A: You know, if you have a lot to donate, that would be fantastic, we would never turn that down.

D: When we became aware of this financial crunch, we sat around in our staff meeting and brainstormed different ways to share the news with our supporters.

A: We thought about highlighting the many fine magazines that in the past year or two have folded because much like us, they are in a constant state of financial precariousness.

[Shows magazines that have folded: Punk Planet,  Clamor, No Compromise, Stay Free, LiP, Herbivore]

We also thought about just having our staff dogs sitting here on the coach, and focusing only on the staff dogs and their sad puppy eyes to get you to give us money.

[Picture of staff dogs, “We needz ur dollarz 2save Bitch”]

D: What we decided to do instead, to keep this campaign really transparent and hopefully to motivate people to keep checking back and spread the word is to make a thermometer in the shape of a wiener dog.

A: And then of course we came up with all sorts of wiener related puns like,  “Help our wiener grow,” “Our wiener needs to get much bigger…”

D: “Feed the bitch to save Bitch”

[Bark bark]

A: “Wiener people going to realize that independent magazines need money?!”

[laughter]

A: The wiener dog graphic is very cute though, so if you can,  get to the website and check it out, you’ll not only hear a lot more about the details of this particular situation and why we need your help, but you will get to see that very cute graphic and in fact, help the wiener dog grow.

(music plays)

A: So subscribe

D: Donate

A: Support

D: Keep Bitch alive.

A: Thank you.

D: We love you.

[Laughter]

D: It always goes back to the love.

Save Bitch

Donate Now!
www.bitchmagazine.org

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