Fighting to Save Paste
Decatur Metro | July 12, 2009In 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.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are some sad individuals rooting for Paste to fail:
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/cribnotes/2009/07/11/chunklet-vs-paste-magazine/
Sorry, Henry, but your “hipness quotient” is pretty much nil if you have to scream about how hip your taste is vs. how unhip someone else’s isn’t. I’d never heard of Chunklet before this, so add me to the “People-Who-Didn’t-Know-Chunklet-Existed-And-Are-Therefore-Doomed-To-Be-Unhip” list.
Even though Paste rocks, it apparently hasn’t been able to pull itself out of its financial doldrums. I’m not at all sure if further “charitable” efforts will save it, so much as prolong the inevitable. I hope I’m wrong!
Eloquent.
So what’s the actual criticism? Not enough alt-style swearing in Paste?
To quote Lisa Simpson, “How rebellious…in a conformist sort of way.”
Chunklet? I am so glad my hipness died in 2000.
The difference between the Paste fundraising method and the Wordsmiths model is that Paste is actually offering value for your donation in the form of music downloads. Wordsmiths made a vague promise of some value further on down the road if they made it and also didn’t give any idea of how much it was needing to raise in order to survive.
Paste also didn’t originally divulge the amount needed.
Free downloads and contests certainly sweeten the pot, but this does get back to the point I was trying to make in the post. Let’s use Wordsmiths as an example…
What’s the difference making a $10 donation to Wordsmiths and buying a $20 book there that you know you could get for $10 at Target? Aren’t both a form of “charity?”
Same thing could be said about every purchase you make at a Decatur store where you pay a premium to support a business, instead of buying it at a huge discount at a big-box.
I think there are a couple of very different issues at work here, and it makes sense to distinguish them. Giving a local business marginally more money than a national chain makes sense even in economic terms if the service is stellar and helps the consumer make an informed purchase – so, for example, you can find really cheap sneakers at the Payless, but if you want to get something custom-fitted that will save your knees and shins, you can pay ten bucks more and buy local, where you can have an individual consultation with knowledgeable staff. At a local bookstore, the extra benefits may come in the form of excellent selection and recommendations (my favorite part of visiting a bookstore is browsing, and that’s becoming less and less interesting in these days of identical box stores with nation-wide identical merchandise.) Where I lived before moving to Decatur, there was an excellent local bookstore that carried wonderful and less-well-known books that were recommended by the owner (who himself had impeccable taste). This, in my eyes, is one place where Wordsmith’s fell short. They had an odd selection, but not one that ever offered me something compelling. And I am addicted to buying books.
There’s another issue, too: one that doesn’t scan well with the economic short-term (and thus one that makes little sense to most people, but in the end makes life worse for everyone). Namely, the extra money spent in local stores keeps the local economy stronger, keeps money in the local government coffers which ends up building roads, schools, parks, etc; one only has to visit small towns in the South with a Wal-Mart to recognize the long-term impacts of selling out your neighbor’s businesses in order to save a couple of bucks. It’s miserable.
These are very different issues that appeal to very different folks. I suspect we need to convince people with the former and know that we’re doing it for the latter. And we need value-added components, such as stellar service and selection, that make someone choose Decatur instead of Barnes and Noble.
Agree that stellar selection and service, as well as walkability, is what makes us shop in Decatur instead of the Edgewood big boxes (well-done) or North DeKalb Mall or Northlake (less well-done). Little Shop of Stories is a good example: No matter what book my children want or what kid’s book birthday present I need, I can count on walking in that store and finding it. They thoroughly understand the Decatur childrens’ book niche. Not only that, I get greeted warmly, have a great time socially, and get exactly the assistance I need, even if I’m not sure what I need. That’s how I felt about Indie Bookstore and Coffee too although their inventory was smaller. Unfortunately, the niche of us who adored Indie’s books and coffee was a little too narrow.
Good points BB, but I just want to clarify…
I’m not asking that people justify giving to local shops (I’m all for that), I’m just pointing out to all the folks that are unsettled about giving donations to businesses, that “charity” isn’t nearly as defined as one would think.
I can see how my last comment could have been taken the other way (thanks to the stigma attached to the word “charity”) but in fact I was pushing to say, charity is a necessary part of buying local…like it or not. So, is going the extra step and giving to a local business with nothing in return really that big of an offensive jump?
May have to quibble just a bit, DM.
I don’t doubt that some small segment of people shop locally as a charitable act, but I’d steer clear of suggesting it’s necessary in buying local. Plenty of local retailers (all the best ones, really) have proven otherwise.
For example, Little Shop of Stories. You might pay more for a book there, but there’s better service, better knowledge, friendlier staff, and better recommendations that justify the price. No one shops at Little Shop to be charitable. They do it because it’s superior, and a huge percentage of people shop on overall value, not just price.
Suggesting charity is required for local business to survive ultimately enables failed business models. Local businesses need to justify higher prices by beating the chains in other ways — service, knowledge, friendliness, flexibility, uniqueness, attention to detail, etc. etc. If you look at Decatur’s most successful enterprises, they’re doing this. If you look at the places that tank, in most cases they weren’t.
True, true.
I just wonder what people (myself included) are promoting when we say “Buy Local!” or put it on a bumper sticker. Isn’t there an element of charity to that?
But, you are quite right…no level of benevolence can save a bad business. The one’s that survive year in and out in our town do so because they provide additional value of some kind.
Maybe more like boosterism than charity.
Yes, perhaps this has just an exercise in rhetoric on my part.
Use of the word “necessary” was my slip up, as Scott noted. My only real contention was that more of the elements of charity exist in community relationships than in the more impersonal world outside it’s borders.
Is this alt-swearing?
“A bucket of shit knows more about typography.”
I thought it was funny.
It would be if he had said it in comic sans.
I prefer to do my alt-swearing in Jokewood.
http://www.fontstock.net/5865/jokewood.html