I'm not ordinarily one for Facebook groups, but I am a huge fan of Harper's Magazine, and I think you should join the Save Harper's group and pledge some money if you can. It's a very good cause; Harper's is one of the very few worthwhile magazines left standing. Here's the explanation of the group:
Being dedicated to the survival and well-being of Harperâs Magazine, and hoping to further its 160-year-old tradition of bringing you the very best in journalism, essays, and fiction, we, the members of the Harper's Union, are asking for your help. In 2010, we lost five of our most experienced editors and now are asked to lose two more, including Ben Metcalf, who was a driving force behind the organizing here.
We have shown numerous means by which Harperâs Magazine might cut costs and increase revenue without laying off its most skilled and experienced editors, and in particular we have urged the magazine's foundation to raise funds from outside sources. This possibility has been rejected by the labor lawyers representing John R. âRickâ MacArthur, our publisher. They argue that fund-raising takes time, and that there is no time to be wasted in reducing our editorial staff by two union members.
As we've seen a million times before, reducing staff is not the way to make your periodical relevant; it just makes your periodical much less readable.
