The Independent Press Association is Dead
The IPA was founded in 1996 to support free speech and social justice. Under John Anner’s leadership, it grew rapidly from a scrappy little nonprofit into a multimillion-dollar social venture that provided business services to a membership of periodicals that included Mother Jones, Sierra, Utne Reader, The Nation, and, at one point, over 500 indie magazines, including Other Magazine, many of which were threatened by the consolidation of the distribution and retail ends of the magazine industry.
At its height, the IPA handled the distribution of almost 100 members, made them loans, financed investigative features by journalists of color, ran a paper buying co-op, and provided technical assistance and a sense of community for magazines that were until that point pretty fragmented. Sure, there were ego clashes and ideological battles and some pretty serious mistakes, all signs of a creative period of an organization’s history. Lots of amazing people worked at or with the IPA and contributed to the growth of the programs, some of which were new under the sun. I was there. I was, and still am, proud to have been there.
Four years ago, Anner left and the IPA hired Richard Landry as Executive Director. As interim Executive Director, I chaired the search and I voted to give him the job after our first choice turned us down. Richard had no obvious political values and no background in indie publishing, but we hoped that he would bring management expertise to an organization that had grown too rapidly and developed problems typical to undercapitalized start-ups. We hoped that he would grow to love the magazines and embrace the values of the organization, which we spent a great deal of time discussing with him in the interview process. We hoped a lot of things.
Instead he, with the help of an IPA board of directors he stacked with sycophants, systematically betrayed the membership and the principles on which the organization was founded. Dissenting staff and board members were driven out of the organization; members who raised questions on the IPA listserve were kicked off; practices and activities that cultivated communication and cooperation were gradually eliminated. A cone of silence descended over the organization. Dissidents were slandered like disgraced Soviet generals after a show trial, and airbrushed out of the photographs.
In June of last year, the IPA was the subject of a major investigative piece in the SF Weekly that covered the meltdown of IPA’s newsstand service and the destruction of the community that once defined the organization. The silence was broken. Members left in droves; foundations and major donors stopped sending checks; the surviving businesses collapsed; the leadership of the IPA grew increasingly isolated and solipsistic.
As of today, the IPA is dead. As I write, staff are packing boxes and, from what I hear, Richard is busy avoiding responsibility for the outcome. (Richard and the IPA Board, if y’all are reading this: The results speak for themselves. You disappointed me, the staff, supporters, the members, and, indirectly, everyone who reads and values indie magazines. It was a lack of integrity and the absence of vision, not a lack of foundation support, that killed the IPA.)
What the hell happened? For years non-profits have been pushed (and have pushed themselves) to start businesses and adopt a more business-like culture that includes financial incentives and high executive salaries – with very fucked-up results that have included big scandals at non-profits like the United Way and the Red Cross.
Social ventures—as businesses run like non-profits are called—have tended to recruit from the corporate sector for management and leadership, when in trouble looking for a savior, only to find that such people often don’t get the mission or culture of the organization, or the difference between non-profit and for-profit goals. They solve some problems but create others, in the process betraying and disillusioning the very people they’re supposed to serve.
That’s exactly what Richard Landry and his allies did to the IPA.
What’s the solution? I’ve heard it suggested that non-profits should stick to advocacy and soup kitchens, and leave the buying and selling to private businesses. Maybe. But I’m inclined to believe that it’s too easy to reject the notion that non-profits might use the tools of the marketplace to accomplish their missions. Indie magazines, no matter how left-wing, are fundamentally entrepreneurial entities, and organizations that serve them need to get magazines like Other into the marketplace in order to spread their ideas. As privately owned distributors and indie outlets collapse, charitable organizations have to step in and keep the ideas flowing. (In Canada, incidentally, the government helps keep indie publishing and bookstores alive, with help from NGOs. It will be a long, long time before we see anything like that here in the USA.)
For the whole social venture thing to work, non-profits need patient capital from foundations as well as grassroots support—readers should expect to pay more for indie content, in the form of donations as well as cover and subscription prices. I also think non-profits (and their funders) need to focus on hiring true believers and then making damn sure that they get the training they need to do their jobs and bring their projects to scale.
But the most important elements—the pieces that Richard eliminated at the IPA—are commitment to the mission and values of the organization, transparency in finances and decision-making, and accountability to the people who depend on non-profits for services and a voice in the culture and in public affairs. Without that, a non-profit may as well be Enron. In the end, that’s exactly what the IPA became.
Wow, thanks for this really thoughtful and interesting post. As someone who’s always fantasized about working in the non-profit sector (full time, rather than just running a non-profit magazine part-time) I still entertain fantasies that non-profits can be effective and well run, and, well, business-like in some ways. But still keep their eyes on their mission and culture. But it’s got to be a really hard balancing act for any non-profit.
You’re welcome. It was actually pretty hard to write, but I felt compelled to get something down, kind of like pouring a Colt 45 on the corner.
Don’t give up on nonprofits. I’ve worked in and with nonprofits all my working life, and while none was perfect, the IPA was first I saw to so completely betray its constituency and ideals, and that’s largely because of an infusion of people who were damaged by decades in the corporate world. I’ve tried to learn from it and keep going.
Somebody in real life read this and asked me what it all meant for indie media, which I don’t directly address. The creeps who ran the IPA into the ground are blaming the business climate of magazine publishing; well, the climate does indeed suck. In the short term, it means more mags like Clamor and Kitchen Sink, which were hurt by the IPA distro meltdown, will go under, and others like Utne will sell out to big companies. It’ll keep getting worse before it gets better. The big picture is that indie mags are caught between online and print business and editorial models; it will be a long time before things sort themselves out and settle. We’re kind of living in the worst of times and the best of times, as far as media goes. But I don’t doubt that the people who put out indie content will come up with creative solutions and band together to come up with another IPA. I just hope they do their homework and learn from the mistakes made by people like me.
Dear Jeremy,
The implosion of the IPA is a great loss to the independent magazine world. Your take on what happened is powerful, and mostly right on. Perhaps I can add a bit of perspective.
I didn’t set out to use business principles to change the world – it just turned out that way. When I went to my first meeting at the Rockefeller Foundation, the program office (and later good friend) Dayna Cunningham asked me what I wanted. I told her, “all I want is fuck-you money.” In other words, enough revenue to be able to say “fuck you anyway” if a foundation turned down a grant request, enough money to be able to chart the organization’s own destiny, enough money to really have an impact and save the world.
And that, my friend, is the truth of the matter. I only got into the business thing because there was no way in hell that I could raise enough money from foundations or individual donations to fulfill the mission of the IPA. And there was not way in hell I was going to put up with starting yet another half-assed, barely competent do-gooder non-profit in love with its own marginality. So, to get that kind of money, the only way I could see to get enough revenue was to start (or buy) businesses that would self-generate enough money to expand the work and meet our mission goals.
I don’t actually think there is such a thing as “applying business principles to non-profits.” There are just as many badly-run private businesses as there are lame-ass non-profits, more so in fact. As Jeremy knows well, the riskiest loans we made in the IPA loan fund were to the private-sector magazines. The non-profits always paid us back. The difference at the IPA is that we were willing to take big risks (like buying a private corporation and turning it into a non-profit), and we wanted to grow as rapidly as possible. Those are not attributes unique to the business world – look at Global Exchange or TransFair, proudly social-justice organizations with diverse revenue profiles, significant market share in their industry niche, and powerful growth models. You have to do things right, be competent, of course – but that’s not unique to the for-profit world.
We – the staff and board of the IPA — were pretty successful with the businesses – with some notable failures. I’m just as proud of the mistakes as of the big wins – at least we tried! At least we took the risk! Why should private business have all the fun? Why can’t non-profit reach for the moon and take big chances?
So yes, the IPA was undercapitalized and suffered from all the growing pains of rapid start-ups. The growth was dramatic and rapid. We launched with a $5,000 grant from the Steward Mott Foundation (thank you, Conrad Martin) in 1996. By 2001, we had over $1.5 million in annual grants and were funded by the top echelon of funders – CS Mott, Ford, Rockefeller, Gerbode, Packard, Nathan Cummings, Goldman, Columbia and 30 more. We had offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. We had a great staff. We had revenue from membership, from an advertising cooperative and from the newsstand distribution company we bought in 2000, we had loans from the Packard Foundation and Working Assets totaling over $1.1 million, we had an advertising business, we had an eco-paper cooperative, we were on the map as one of the most successful media non-profits and – no small thing – we had convinced Barnes and Noble to donate more than $150,000 a year in promotional space to our members. Total gross annual revenue was getting close to five or six million dollars, with an operating budget in excess of $2.5 million.
There was a lot more. We had successfully brought in the ethnic press in New York and Chicago. We had created a powerful model for provided high-quality content by progressive writers of color to the top national left-wing magazines. We had developed a senior staff able and willing to take on new challenges. We were an invited participant in national magazine events and conferences. We put on our own conferences! Of course, there were plenty of looming problems, major obstacles, big built-in issue, but in general the pattern was set for continued growth. (Believe me, there are just as many problems in small, marginal, low-impact non-profits.)
When I left four years ago, nearly to the day, I felt that the IPA was just getting going. The loan fund was poised for big expansion, BigTop was growing rapidly, the New York office was more than self-sufficient, membership was booming and we had great relations in the foundation world.
Given that it has all fallen off a cliff, I don’t want to denigrate Richard or the board – Jeremy has done a fine job of that. I do want to point to two things that I think are critical to understanding how the IPA was built, why it succeeded, and perhaps why it failed.
The first one is easy: money makes the world go round. Without strong revenue, you can only manage problems, not seek opportunities. You can only grow as fast as your money will allow you to. So the fact that the IPA suffered a drastic decline in foundation support over the few years since I left caused immense problems. On the other hand, each program has to pay for itself. You simply can’t rob one program to pay for another and expect to survive for long. This kind of fiscal discipline is essential – it’s a key part of any good business management that you can find from Jack Welch’s book about his time at GE to any MBA course. The amazing thing is that so few non-profits practice this discipline.
It’s my belief that, contrary to popular opinion, there is plenty of money out there for organizations like the IPA. There is plenty of money out there in general, if you can figure out how to go out there and get it. I think, in some alternate but not unimaginable reality, the IPA could have had a $10 million a year operating budget this year, instead of closing its doors. It could have had 1,000 members, instead of hemorrhaging its own constituents. It could have been the national model for a social-justice media organization with a great revenue model.
The second thing to understand is that, when leading a non-profit or even a private company — you always lead with the mission. The mission – in the case of the IPA to promote social justice by sustaining independent publications – has to be the key argument in any conversation, with a foundation or with a corporation. If you lose sight of the mission, you lose your way. Lose sight of both the mission and the money, and you lose your company. I don’t know if this is what took down the IPA, but I can tell you that this is what was responsible for its success.
I used to carry around a $2 bill with me at the IPA to remind me to do something every day to raise money (actually, I still do). At staff retreats, I tried to get all the staff to see themselves as involved in generating revenue – ERR I called it, “Everyone’s Responsible for Revenue.” But when I went to negotiate with Barnes and Noble or the big distributors, I always started by talking about our mission. We would not have been able to get them involved without focusing on social justice, on the need to sustain (and improve) the independent press.
It’s very sad for me to see the IPA go out of business. My heart is heavy, and most of all I feel bad for the publications and people hurt by the BigTop debacle. So many good programs, so many great people. It’s a shame it had to end this way.
OK so here is another post-mortem from another former IPA staffer. I guess this is our way of mourning together.
I think John is too modest about the beginnings of IPA. I remember he visited me while I was coeditor of Dollars and Sense, at that time a 9500 circulation economic justice magazine (still around). He wore a pin striped suit and carried a briefcase — presenting a very business-y image that looked a little out of place in our dumpy office in a former church. And John — you talked about newsstand distribution then. The independent bookstores so necessary for all of our newsstand distribution were closing at a frightening rate and Fine Print, which handled distribution for many of the independent political magazines, was going bankrupt. And negotiating a settlement for members was one of the first acts of IPA.
I think John’s background in economic development in the developing world shaped the idea that you have to change the independent media market as a whole in order for individual magazines to survive. IPA devised an economic development strategy for the independent magazine market, first off by cooperatively bargaining to build our newsstand presence, especially in the big Barnes and Noble stores that had basically shut out the small titles (while killing off the small bookstores). He, Beth Schulman (then of In These Times) and other founders saw that we had to set aside our purity and support for the independent bookstores and make a deal with the box store devil.
As a social justice organization, IPA also saw the segregation of the independent media world, and: 1. sought to strengthen the largely independent immigrant and ethnic press sector that is a major part of the politically engaged media and 2. challenge the largely white social justice press to cultivate more journalists of color by providing fellowships allowing pubs to pay these writers major magazine rates. The first turned into IPA-New York and the second were called the George Washington Williams fellowships. It looks like both these programs will survive the IPA debacle.
While there were structural challenges facing IPA, I place its failure directly in the hands of its inept executive director and passive, do nothing board (with a few exceptions). Before resigning in January 2005 (leaving in April 2005), I saw an IPA finance department that was clueless about nonprofit financial management, charging my grants 40% for administrative overhead, when 15% is standard and even required by the foundations which supported us. When I sent a report back as unusable, I was unable to secure any further reports from them. Neither he nor the board seemed to care that this siphoning off of funds violated our agreements with foundations and revealed a top-heavy, mismanaged organization. In more along these lines, I attended a board meeting where the board did not seem to care that the executive director could not produce a budget or even viable financial reports. In my time there, the executive director dedicated too much of his energy trying to secure a loan, and was late out of the gate dedicating the energy needed to woo foundation grants. When he did meet with program officers, his grasp of the social justice sector was limited but either he was too grandiose or his ego was too fragile for him to bring more savvy staff into the discussion. He was an executive director whose female program director helped win a meeting with the Women’s Donor Network for a major grant, only to speak the whole time rather than allowing the female program director to take the lead. Nice work, Richard.
I am grateful to the steering committee and dedicated staff of the NY office who devised a way to save that project, and to Linda Jue for trying to save the George Washington Williams fellowship and Campus Alternative Journalism project. But now the efforts will be splintered, not benefiting from the big picture strategy that helped keep our thinking and organizing fresh. And the fate of the revolving loan fund – so crucial for small magazines to pay for the direct mail campaigns to secure new subscribers – is unknown. Is that gone too? I think so.
All in all, a major tragedy.
Dear All,
I am a reporter with the Indypendent, itself an IPA member (in NYC, fortunately, it seems) who is writing a story that started out as being about the end of Clamor Magazine but is now as much, if not more, about the end of the IPA. I’d love to talk to anyone here about the current situation. You are welcome to contact me at chanders_imc (at) yahoo (dot) com.
For now, I was simply wondering how the closure will affect the publishers still owed money by Indypress News Stand. Obviously, this quote from the member letter– “We have taken this action because we have been unable to raise the funds necessary to continue ongoing operations and to resolve our debt to Indy Press Newsstand Services publishers. Ultimately, we were unable to overcome the toll of the ongoing deficits incurred by the newsstand operation. Because of this, the IPA board voted to shut down operations in order to liquidate the assets of the organization and distribute the resulting funds fairly to all of IPA’s creditors”– tells me that many if not all of these publishers still owed money will never see it.
Is this accurate? Does anyone know how many small press mags. are still owed money by the ex-Big Top? I know that the IPA offered its members a “deal”– if they stayed with Disticor . Did this actually happen? Anyone have any ideas on how to figure this all out without calling all these mags directly?
The IPA claims that all publishers will be paid what they are owed, according to IPA’s records. I’m not sure how much is still owed, or to what degree IPA’s records and the magazines’ records diverge. There’s no mention of a timetable, which is critical. If Kitchen Sink or Clamor had known for sure when the money would arrive, they might have been able to plan and keep on publishing.
Everything has been turned over to an agency — IPA no longer has any staff or any board members; it’s just gone and there’s nobody to complain to besides the agency. For some reason, this is the part that I find saddest. Everyone involved with IPA just cut and ran, and didn’t want to face the music or the members.
Wow – RIP IPA. Although I ended ROCKRGRL Magazine in 2005 and my membership in IPA ended a bit before that, I am proud to have been a part of what visionary John Anner started. Too bad others could not follow that vision. Good luck to all.
Carla DeSantis
http://www.carladesantis.net
I was a very active member of the IPA and was even awarded the “Hero of the List-Serve” award at the conference in January 2005. It was, of course, a great irony that I was summarily removed from the list-serv by Lucia Hwang in April 2006 for “unprofessional conduct” for asking embarrassing questions. (I did not use rude language or make personal attacks).
I knew that the Big Top acquisition was a bad idea from Day One, and watched with increasing amounts of anger and horror as my worse (internal and later, external) nightmares came through. It may be hubris, but if the IPA had listened to its members, many of whom were voices of reason and moderation, and some who had been in the business (on the micro-scale, admittedly) for decades, instead of the ego of its board members and director, it would still likely be kicking today. The IPA under John Anner was a noble experiment that helped my titles and many others a great deal; under Richard Landry it was a private fiefdom interested only in ego-stroking and gradiose ambition. How the mighty have fallen.
Rather than complaining about all that has gone wrong with the IPA I think I’ll morn the passing of an organization that really helped our publication get going. I don’t believe we would have made it to this point without the guidance of people like Jeremy, John, Anne, and Jo Ellen to name a few of the many that helped guide us through the web of pitfalls while learning the art and business of periodical publishing.
Thank you to all of you. The IPA will be missed.
Ron Thompson-
Learning Through History
Thanks, Ron. It means a lot to hear that.
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for venting our communal frustration.
When I joined BigTop in 2004 I was tasked with determining how the business would make money with the goal of supporting the larger goals of the organization. The answer was we couldn’t reach profitability without completely restructuring the business. Richard Landry had no interest in facing these facts and no head for figures. I was told by an IPA board member that he ran his last company into the ground and I truly believe he has no ability to run or manage a a business.
The staff valiantly fought over many months to enlighten the board to the issues and falsehoods with the hope of removing Richard and reinstating integrity and sanity. The board is at fault for dismissing our concerns and allowing Richard to “dismiss” us.
The board should be ashamed for their role in the demise of this noble cause and Richard should be investigated for criminal fraud. Where was the finance department in all of this? Let the investigation unfold.
Another former IPA staffer here, dismayed and saddened by the news of its demise.
As a very early hire at the organization, my perspective is limited to recollections of the days when it was scrappy, resourceful, and filled with that “fuck you” spirit that John mentions above in this thread.
That was when internet mania still gripped the land and it seemed lunatic to keep pulping trees to print out 64-page dinosaurs. Back then, the membership seemed to fall naturally into one of several untidy, rebellious camps: “eco-pubs,” “pubs of color,” “alt.news pubs,” “punk pubs,” “weird faith pubs” and so on. With the rare exception, the publisher, editors and circulation managers we dealt at these magazines shared the IPA’s commitment to the idea of independent media as a transformative force in society. And while there were plenty of fights on the Listserv about how to run a magazine, there was nary a comment undercutting another magazine’s core values, mission, or editorial slate – no matter how far out there its publisher was taking it.
Back then, this belief that all voices deserve support was the foundation the IPA was originally built on, and it was clearly defined and repeated by John, Beth Schulman, and those board members who were active. And while helping our members increase newsstand sales and subscribers was an important goal, so too was the idea that we were creating a community of the like-minded: one bonded by faith in ideas and impact of media on peoples’ lives. Something like this hadn’t existed since the 1960s, and maybe not even then, either.
Anyhow, with IPA dead, my guess is that its Romulus-Remus sides of increasing sales and creating community for publishers will be forever divided. On the community side, some Yahoo Group will take the place of an association (and why not? The cost is right). And on the sales and technical assistance side, I’m sure there are nonprofit consultants, advisors and perhaps even another association of some kind not too far over the horizon waiting to get the chance to exchange a publisher’s hard-earned money for the promise of sustainability.
But I wonder if there will ever be another organization with so much faith in the power of pen, and so much care for the disparate minds of its wielders? Who knows.
What is Happening to the Independent Press?…
There’s been a lot of depressing news in the world on independent media these days, well print indie media at least. Independent magazines have been folding left and right. The Independent Press Association died. What’s going on?…
Hmmm, interesting discussion of the IPA closure, which we’re also discussing intently over at http://www.punkplanet.com. Although there, we’re a bit more frustrated by the repurcussions.
[...] With the IPA going under and PGW bankrupt and possibly about to be sold to Perseus, it’s feeling like hard times for independent publishers and stores. Now here’s another depressing data point. Publisher’s Weekly reports that Black Oak Books, a Bay Area indy bookstore chain, is looking for a buyer or investor, and might have to shut down. In the wake of so many other closures and near-closures, that’s just another drop of acid eating away at the bookselling scene. But here’s the really depressing part: Like many independents, Black Oak has relied more on wholesalers and distributors for its inventory in recent years. But not ordering from publishers’ reps diminished the availability of authors for Black Oak’s events program. “It’s not like we are not ordering the books, we are just going through wholesalers,” said Pretari. At the same time, he said, the larger publishers have been pushing for 60-day payments, which affects how much backlist the store can afford to stock. “It’s always been 60 days, but if you sent them something every month, it could be more like 90 and 120 days,” he said. “The credit departments now have no pity.” [...]
As comments on the IPA disaster have proliferated in the blogosphere (for the record: the Other blog broke the news first, beating the IPA’s public announcement by a matter of hours), I’ve been reading a lot of doom, gloom, and frustration. It’s justified, and there’s no point in pretending otherwise. But in a situation like this, it helps to take the long view. Yes, I realize “the long view” doesn’t help any publisher facing a cash flow crisis. That just sucks. But the question I’ve gotten from each of the reporters who’ve called me for comment on the closure, and the comment I keep hearing on blogs, boils down to: are we facing some kind of indie press apocalypse? This indicates a wider concern, beyond the fate of individual titles. My answer is that I don’t believe we are. If you read histories of the radical press and media change in this country, you see constant cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. The IPA story is one of bad management and bad faith; if not for that, it might still be around supporting indie titles, who as a group will survive this crisis and keep on innovating.
Also: I received a very polite spanking from Nina Utne of Utne Reader for writing (in my comment, above) that Utne “sold out.” I just wanted to make it clear, also for the record, that I didn’t mean to imply that Utne had become part of some evil corporate empire — its buyer, Ogden, is a mission-driven company that carries a family of titles that more or less share the same values. Punk Planet actually published an extremely thoughtful piece on the Utne sale in issue no. 75 (”Revenge of Print”) that I recommend to readers who are interested in the future of the indie press — I’m quoted pretty extensively saying that the sale could actually be good for the indie press, if it helps Utne help indie titles reach a wider audience. Unfortunately, it’s not online so you’ll have to buy the issue at the Punk Planet website.
Hello there.
I bring little to the table, being a mere reader, and not a ‘playah’.
And reading this, a different, yet similar, account occurred to me. The Pacifica Foundation, a non-profit media organization, was nearly liquidated by a group of intruder-managers, much in the same style of Richard Landry and his “crew”. It was only through some high-profile legal and financial moves that these people were eventually bought out and expelled. It was a costly and confusing battle, one that included difficult political, sexual, racial and class elements that further complicated matters. To this day, I cannot tell you whether the intruders intended for this to happen or a failure of pride or competence occurred. Ultimately, it is only important that Pacifica diverted precious time and resources away from their primary mission in order to fight against this failure.
Hope was not enough to protect Pacifica, and it was not enough to protect IPA, either. Only the legal structure of corporate protection utilized by for-profit organizations, combined with a strong personal system of vigilance and work by people who actually care about what you believe in.
unfortunately, this works pretty well for totalitarianism as well as it may work for you.
good luck to us all.
Amazingly bad news to stumble across tonight. Does anyone have a list of member publications from IPA? We include links to alt mags at http://www.newpages.com/altmags if any publishers reading this want to send us info. Our email address is on the website. We’ve been promoting alt mags in our print mag and now online for over 20 years. What other listserv or website will help to coordinate info of use to alt mag publishers?
Hi Jeremy, John, Robert and many other familiar names and faces,
The vision and hard work and savvy that founded and grew the IPA is extraordinary. I don’t think any other non-profit has risen up from nothing, with a bunch of people mostly with editing experience scattered all over the country, and created such an important trade group. Of course the IPA was much more than a trade group, but essentially that’s what us publishers needed.
My own staff asked why I spent so much time on IPA business and I always answered that by pooling together we increase our chances of survival. Plus I loved all the other board members and staff. I’m sorry my traveling adventure took me out of the country as such an important moment in the ipa history, although the forces seem so strong i wonder if i could have done anything.
The sorry end of so many terrific non-profits to me are a natural result of capitalism. The two models just do not work, especially when you think of a board as a bunch of just nice people. At least board members of for-profits get something out of it. There’s just too many horrible stories out there. The board members of my own non-profit, Women Express, a few egomaniacs, a few wimpy roll-over, and a “I know business types” whoops, maybe they are also the egomaniacs, dessimated Teen Voices magazine, the longest running alternative magazine for teen girls. They drove out the staff, lied about the services they provided to funders, lied to donors, and didn’t even bother to proofread or otherwise make sure they provided decent editorial to the readers they purported to educate. Well here I have my first public ranting.
I was on the board when we were moving towards Big Top. It was a great idea, but added layers of complexity to an already complex organization. And changing leadership is difficult no matter what else is happening.
I’m sick of hearing how non-profits have to act like for-profits. First of all, many of them are run better than for-profits. how many for-profits run with no capital investment? not many. And second, it’s not like a non-profit can go public, or sell shares, or get real investors. and if they are too much like a business, like magazines are, well then, the donors say you should be making your own money. just like the IPA tried to do.
good luck to all the single-title, alternative publishers out there! It’s a tough road. and thanks Jeremy for starting the conversation.
best wishes, alison amoroso
aliamoroso@earthlink.net 404-371-1482
I publish Giant Robot magazine, I agree with most everything people have posted. I’m not sure what the future will be, but it sure is uncomfortable for some reason using a new distributor who you’ve never met, and maybe never will. I’m with Disticor, and although they’ve called and tried to make me comfortable, I’m not sure if I’m there. I feel for all of you publishers out there who are having a hard time or are feeling bewildered about your own futures. Unfortunately, at the end, it seemed like the Indypress at least in terms of client services were getting better. I had what I think was one of my better reps at the end. Where’d you go?!
Just got my paper work from the people handling the Indypress’s debts… That hurts. Anyone else get em?
[...] There are bastions, of course – such as the venerable and esteemed Interzone, the British sf magazine which celebrates a 25 year lifespan with the issue that should be arriving in letterboxes some time this week, and a market I am immensely proud to be a reviewer for*. Over the pond, you have Asimov’s, Analog, F&SF and a few others. But as loyally as they hold on, the figures show that readership just isn’t what it used to be. And the problems are far wider than our own little neck of the woods. [...]
I joined the IPA in 2003 as I began to launch my own small magazine (TALL magazine, since folded). It was Jeremey’s enthusiasm and willingness to help that really sold me on joining the IPA, and in the year that I was involved as a member, the IPA was an incredibly helpful organization for me … except for their distribution arm … which I still have resentment over.
Anyways, Jeremy personally helped me get a loan and was always accessible to me with questions or ideas. So when I heard that he was leaving the IPA, it was an omen for me that darker clouds were gathering over the institution, and because of this, never renewed my membership.
I do miss the listserv and the interaction with other publishers about the day-to-day problems and solutions that affected us all.
So if I never had the opportunity to thank you before, Jeremy. Well … thank you.
Where should an indy publisher go, now that the IPA is kaput?
Thanks for the kind words, Everard.
Michelle: a new, low-key organization, the Independent Publishers Network, arose from the ashes of the IPA. At the moment it’s little more than a listserv, but there are some resources in the works. You can join by sending an email to michael_welch(at)sbcglobal.net
[...] This is a question I’ve pondered a lot lately, as it looks more and more as if the future of independent publishing is in serious doubt. (The IPA collapse, the PGW mess, independent bookstores screwed, the Time Warner scheme to destroy indy magazines, etc.) It would be awesome if there were more viable revenue models for publishing online. (I know it’s more viable than it used to be, at least partly because some of other’s former advertisers have told us they’re moving most of their ad money from print to online venues.) [...]
Postal Rate Increase Threatens Independent Media…
A scheduled postal rate hike designed by Time Warner, the largest magazine publisher in the United States, is threatening the viability of several independent publications that will likely see rate increases of more than 20%. Large publications will se…
The IPA had made a deal with a woman who sold a subscription software program. Or maybe it was just an ad in their newsletter. Does anyone have contact information for this woman. I am interested in her software.
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Coming a little late to the discussion, but here’s my two cents: http://ronafernandez.blogspot.com/2007/06/closing-circle.html
In reply to Alan Bell – I think I’m the person you’re looking for. It’s not actually my software but I do fulfillment and tech support for the owners, CLMP (Council of Literary Magazines and Presses). You can see a list of the program features on my website at http://www.backferry.com/template.pdf and order it on CLMP’s site, http://www.clmp.org.
Has there been any organization to step in and fill the roll of the IPA?
Can someone send me a copy or link to information on the services the IPA provided?
Is there still a need? If it were re-born would the people come back together?
Thank you for entertaining my questions.
Chris, answers to your questions, in order:
1) Sort of. The Independent Press Network consists of about 70 or 80 former IPA members. It is more of a listserve than an organization, but it does provide community. To sign up, write to michael_welch (at) sbcglobal.net
2) Try google, where you might find a stray profile–unfortunately, with the website gone, there’s no longer a comprehensive overview. I’d be happy to mail you an old brochure or annual report — write to me at jeremyadamsmith (at) mac.com.
3) I absolutely think there’s still a need–perhaps even more so. And if the needs are met, magazines will join. I doubt, however, that the old crowd that launched the IPA will want to be involved in a new organization. I can’t speak for everyone, of course, but many of us have moved on to other things, and I think our day in this area has passed. What will take to start things up again? In a word, leadership — someone has to take responsibility for moving new projects forward.
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