Tiffany B. Brown

a mish-mosh of stuff

On surviving — even profiting — in a magazine downturn

People were getting tired of seeing things they loved go away. A lot of people felt powerless to change that, and all of a sudden we were presenting them with an opportunity to help fix it, and our readers literally helped save Paste.

Paste magazine co-owner Josh Jackson in Back in Black in Audience Development.

Paste, whose offices aren’t too far from my house, nearly folded last year. What saved them? An honest appeal for cash to their crazy loyal fan base.

But they didn’t stop there. They also gave their readers and web site users something extra in return for their contributions: exclusive music, flexible subscriptions, and *gasp* more content.

The takeaway? Do good sh*t and people will support you.

  • http://misterjt.tumblr.com/rss Jason T.

    Also, be willing to adapt your business model. Try new things. And, Be Honest — with yourself and your customers/clients/guests.

  • http://mindrally.com/ Chris Mills

    Begging and pleading (ie. giving away things) with user base is a tough decision to make I'm sure. We've seen a lot of this lately. “Come here and we'll give you this.” I wonder why more pubs aren't saying, “Where are you?, ok, we'll meet you there.”

  • tiffanybbrown

    I think part of why it worked is because the community wanted the paper to survive. It wasn't quite “come here and we'll give you this.” It was “Hey guys, we love Paste. What can we do to keep you around?” The offers of help and support first came from the community.