WE WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS BELOW
Decatur’s Paste asks readers to save the magazine
by Jonathan Cribbs
jonathan@dekalbchamp.com
 Paste magazine, an honest-to-God music and culture publication based in Decatur, is at its knees.
As other music glossies and newspapers might say: Welcome to the club.
The magazine’s advertising revenue has tanked dramatically during the recession, and the publication is begging its 200,000-plus readers – and investors, possibly – for cash without which it will close its doors. Publisher Nick Purdy wouldn’t say precisely how much Paste needs. It doesn’t need $1 million, he said. More like in the low six figures.
“We think we’re at the bottom, and it’s going to start to pick up,” he said. “But we have to raise some money.”
Many publications from magazines to newspapers have been treading water nationwide since advertising dollars plummeted at the first flush of economic collapse last fall. Blender, a popular music magazine, closed its doors in March. Countless other newspapers, magazines and publishing houses have been slashing costs and hemorrhaging employees like sinking ships.
Paste’s 15 employees recently absorbed a 20 percent, across-the-board pay cut to keep the mag’s legs moving, Purdy said. Each issue used to include a CD of new music from bands across the country. Now, editors place the music online for download, and readers must request the CD to get it.
“This is a no-brainer,” he said.
Many advertising sectors are down throughout the magazine, including automotive, beer and liquor and consumer electronics, Purdy said. Ultimately, though, the magazine is relying on readers. Paste asked them to donate on its Web site. The magazine will know if the fundraising drive has worked within a week or so, Purdy said. Within the first 20 hours on May 15, he said more than 700 people had donated.
“Most magazines probably wouldn’t be able to do this, but our readers really love Paste,” he said.
Paste launched in 2003, a relative outsider far from New York and Los Angeles, the centers of music and film culture the magazine covers. Its circulation grew quickly and rose to roughly 60,000 in 2005 and doubled that year when the magazine bought the subscription list for Tracks music magazine, which was dying. It was a high point for Purdy. Tracks had been based in New York.
“It was like the little fish down in Georgia ate the bigger fish up in New York,” he said.
Nearly a quarter of Tracks’ readers re-upped with Paste, he said.
Paste’s fundraising campaign had received press coverage from The Associated Press, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the popular blog Gawker in New York and various media outlets across the Internet as of May 18. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton even mentioned the campaign on his Twitter account.
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