In May 14, 2009, Paste publicly announced that their financial woes were more serious than they had previously anticipated.
Josh Jackson, editor of the music, film and culture magazine devised a plan in hopes of bringing awareness and donations to the failing magazine rather than calling it quits following an ominous letter that spelled out issues they had been having with paying contributing writers, photographers and artists.
With the help of artists previously featured in the magazine, the staff asked for donations from subscribers and readers alike in exchange for free music and other prizes. In exchange for a monetary donation, you could have access to rare and unreleased songs from bands such as Neko Case, The Decemberists, of Montreal and The Avett Brothers. Additionally, Paste offered a tier of subscription choices, including a Lifetime Subscription.
Whitestone Motion Pictures also posted Lest We Forget on their YouTube page, a 6-minute short film based in the Civil War Era. In the description section of the video, they stated:
"This film was made in association with PASTE magazine for their Save Paste campaign. We believe strongly in the vision and mission of this magazine, and encourage everyone to visit their site and donate to keep this great magazine going. While you're at it, do yourself a favor and get a subscription, you surely wont be disappointed."
Although help came from various sources and the "Save Paste" Campaign raised $250,000 from 10,000 donations in three months, Paste announced that they had suspended print publications by August 2010, becoming one of the many magazines that had to switch to a strictly on-line format.
The decision came suddenly, with many subscribers and readers wondering where the newspaper -- and their paid-for subscription -- stood.
In the article from Village Voice's Sound of the City, Jackson said that the magazine had "been running on fumes for a really long time," and they finally just "ran out of fumes." Other sites, including The Wrap's Media Alley report that nine of the 12 full-time Paste employees were let go.
So how does a magazine who has won 15 awards and two nominations, including Magazine of the Year at the PLUG Independent Music Awards from 2006-2008, end up strapped for cash and ultimately out of print? And if a magazine with such high reader and industry ratings can fail, is there hope for any magazine?
According to Crain's New York Business, "the pace of decline appears to have slowed," and they report that the number of U.S. magazines going out of print has gone from 573 in 2007, to 526 in 2008.
Additionally, Ad Age is reporting even better numbers for 2010 in comparison to 2009. They state that "publishers only shut down 87 magazines in the first half of 2010, way down from 279 shutdowns in the first half of last year," while "only 16 titles dropped print to become online-only publications, far fewer than the 43 that went online-only in the first half a year ago."
Others claim that the issue magazines will have problems keeping print publication sales up with all of the new technology coming out for readers and tablets. However, the hard numbers show that this may not be the case - not for a while, at least.
With hard copies of the magazines a few cents cheaper than the digital version, and a year's print subscription to the magazine tens to hundreds cheaper than its tablet counterpart, it's hard to imagine magazines becoming obscure any time soon.
The good news for Paste is that even though they are entirely on-line for the time being, they can still rest easy knowing that they won the GAMMA Award for 'Best Magazine Website' in both 2007 and 2008.
It may not be perfect, but it's something.
Steel Train's Jack Antonoff and Evan Winiker may be feuding via Twitter, but that isn't going to stop the boys of Steel Train from going out on the road this fall.
