In this morning’s AJC, fellow Decatur resident and recent not-just-a-food-writer, John Kessler, sits down with Paste’s editor Josh Jackson for an in-depth look at the “Save Paste” campaign.

In the article, Kessler discusses Paste’s long-standing mission, the not quite success of the Pay-What-You-Want campaign, their ties to Decatur, and throws out a few key numbers:

• 1 million uniques a month for PasteMagazine.com:

• 205,000 people subscribe to the print version of Paste

• The company has raised $240,000 of $300,000 needed to stay afloat

Kessler even gets some response from the Atlanta music community on Paste’s move to ask for money: Stomp and Stammer’s publisher is opposed (saying the effort “comprises you what you do”), while the owner of Criminal Records supports it.

Here in Decatur, we’ve been around this block before.  First it was Wordsmiths Books that asked for donations to stay afloat (though ultimately folded) and now Paste.  And though editor Nick Purdy informed me that Wordsmiths’ decision didn’t influence Paste’s fundraising idea, it seems more than mere coincidence that this idea is only being pursued here.

Why?  It might just be that community effectively blurs the idea of “charity” and removes it from it’s black-and-white context in the stark global economy.  As Wendell Berry wrote in 2001,

In a viable neighborhood, neighbors ask themselves what they can do or provide for one another, and they find answers that they and their place can afford. This, and nothing else, is the practice of neighborhood. This practice must be, in part, charitable, but it must also be economic, and the economic part must be equitable; there is a significant charity in just prices.

Good luck fellas.  In addition to much the music world, Decatur is behind you.