Help save Paste Magazine

The Campaign to Save Paste
Paste Needs You!

The global recession has taken its toll on Paste as advertisers have slashed their spending. We are turning to our readers to help bridge the gap. Even a small contribution can make a big difference.

Join 75+ of our favorite artists in the campaign to save Paste and get rare & exclusive tracks as a thank you.

Artists include The Decemberists, Neko Case, She & Him, Cowboy Junkies, Of Montreal, Indigo Girls, Jayhawks, String Cheese Incident, G. Love, Josh Rouse, The Hives, Matthew Sweet, The Avett Brothers, Joe Henry, John Roderick of The Long Winters, Over the Rhine, Bob Mould, Arrested Development, Brandi Carlile, John Doe, Josh Ritter, Marc Broussard and more. We also have a number of goodies (such as signed R.E.M. and Band of Horses posters, an ocean-view cabin on next year's Cayamo cruise, and more) to give to donors in random drawings.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/paste/the-campaign-to-save-paste.html

Paste is a nonprofit?

I'd help save Paste if they'd ever sent me a single issue for either of the two subscriptions I had to their magazine, but they didn't.

Paste covers some good music and other media, but they're just too damn upbeat/uncritical/plain for my taste. The day when I turn to print magazines for informational purposes has pretty much ended - so in order to bother with print, I want some smarts, snark, stuff I can't find elsewhere. Paste is more like NPR in culture-mag form. Safe as milk, as they say.

Long live Chunklet, Big Takeover, hell, even Mojo/Uncut/Q - they all have something to offer. Paste, not so much, unless you need another slavering profile of the latest indie-AAA crossover success.

fatskippy wrote:
Paste is a nonprofit?

I know you were kidding, but the tax attorney in me can't help himself to point out that you cannot deduct your "donation" to paste.

Yet.

I say yet because taking print news outlets to nonprofit status is all the rage now.

Perhaps they shouldn't have went with the pay-what-you-want subscription model. Maybe actually charging for their magazine would've helped. I dunno, just a thought.

Julian, wrote:
Perhaps they shouldn't have went with the pay-what-you-want subscription model. Maybe actually charging for their magazine would've helped. I dunno, just a thought.

Very true.  Whoever thought up that marketing plan must be feeling pretty good right now.

I saw another article criticizing that, and it just said if they were so keen on the pay what you want thing, they could have easily made it so that you have to pay a certain price to get a paper subscription, and anything less just gets you access to special online content. 

Julian, wrote:
Perhaps they shouldn't have went with the pay-what-you-want subscription model. Maybe actually charging for their magazine would've helped. I dunno, just a thought.

knowing this would come up and they didn't give the magazine away for free…

"As a completely independent company, Paste has struggled for the past nine months as advertisers have decided to wait out the recession. As most of you realize, magazines are heavily subsidized by advertising. Industry experts estimate that an average subscription for a monthly publication would cost $60-$80 per year without advertising support.
But last month was brutal. Cash received unexpectedly reached an all-time low, and turned a tough situation into a short-term crisis.

Long-term, Paste will emerge in good shape. Even with the fall-off at the end of the year, 2008 was our best year yet?print subscribers, print ads, online readers and online advertising were all at record levels. Readers (print and online) remain strong. And new advertisers have come on board even in the recession, with more ready when their advertising budgets come back."

http://www.pastemagazine.com/paste/letter-to-paste-readers.html

Think of the donation as the tip jar on the counter…

I agree that Paste tends to cover way to much AAA music and can be overly fluffy, however Harp Magazine and No Depression are no more and CMJ New Music Report is far to sporadic at this point.  It would be nice to have an outlet where it's readership doesn't vote Blink-182 as greatest punk band ever…

my main problem with paste was that roughly 90% of what they reviewed got a positive review. and it wasn't like they only reviewed a small bunch of stuff where you might expect it to be generally more positive. it just seemed like they only had good things to say about everything, which ultimately isn't too helpful except for knowing what's out there.

BookerT wrote:
my main problem with paste was that roughly 90% of what they reviewed got a positive review. and it wasn't like they only reviewed a small bunch of stuff where you might expect it to be generally more positive. it just seemed like they only had good things to say about everything, which ultimately isn't too helpful except for knowing what's out there.

reviewers are paid to say nice things nowadays.  in the contract.  rolling stone is the worst for such.  i love how rs gave u2's new album 5 stars and basically said jesus christ wrote it himself . . . then a month later, "it's just alright."  fuck journalism.  be buried with the paper you rot on.

MyraEllen wrote:
I'd help save Paste if they'd ever sent me a single issue for either of the two subscriptions I had to their magazine, but they didn't.

Just call, write or email them. They are very responsive and have a great customer service, I'm sure they will correct the issue.
I'll help "save" them, but just last week I decided to cancel my subscription…I still may.
About a third of the free songs I like, and the issues have thinned quite a bit. I enjoy the articles, but last issue there were 2 main topics and they were SHORT and nothing new. I rarely read the reviews for music (other: books/film/etc, yes) since as one said, they are sort of "milky". Yet, I don't think they are all that nice in their reviews but not all the reviewers are seasoned enough.  I still don't understand their latest rating system, and I find I don't care. In all, they've been very supportive of  many artists and have a mom-n-pop approach, even if lite…as Koz says there are not many left out there…

Sugartastic wrote:

MyraEllen wrote:
I'd help save Paste if they'd ever sent me a single issue for either of the two subscriptions I had to their magazine, but they didn't.

Just call, write or email them. They are very responsive and have a great customer service, I'm sure they will correct the issue.

Believe me, I did.  And they were really nice on the phone and assured me both my subscriptions were on the way, and they never came.  ever.  I stopped trying.