The Future of The American Conservative
Digg 
Stumble Upon 
Newsvine 
Slashdot 
Mixx 
Diigo 
Delicious 
Reddit 
Facebook
The current (May 18) issue of the magazine contains an important announcement that bears repeating for on-line readers: The American Conservative, endangered though it has been by the economic collapse, will survive. An outpouring of support from readers (and authors) heartened us to continue; that boost, plus some restructuring and an ambitious plan for fundraising, have enabled us to fight on. And after all, we could hardly absent the field while a struggle is underway for the future of the Right.
There will be a few changes: TAC’s print version is going monthly. (Subscribers will, of course, receive the full number of issues that they signed up for, even on the new schedule — and you’ll be getting a thicker magazine, too, since we’ve upped the page count.) There will be a short hiatus — six weeks — between the current issue and our first monthly issue, which goes to press June 18. In the meantime, we’re going to continue building up the website — the addition this week of John Schwenkler’s Upturned Earth blog is just the first step.
Reader support has been essential to TAC’s survival and flourishing all along, and more so now than ever, so please consider making a donation. Even small contributions help us to sustain and improve the website and magazine. If you don’t yet get the print TAC, now’s a good time to start; or if you’re already a subscriber, you can help by renewing your subscription early or giving a gift subscription. These are rough times, but that makes all the more important the struggle to keep alive the ideas of the Republic in an age of empire.
Filed under: Announcements
Six weeks?
I should have the money scraped together for a subscription by then.
It’s occurred to me that newsstand buying probably does less to support the magazine than subscribing would, even if it actually costs more. I rationalize it by thinking that Barnes & Noble might discontinue it (as they did Chronicles) if I didn’t buy it there, but there’s no way to know that.
I think it’s great news that TAC will survive, and all of us ought to thank Mr. Unz a great deal not only for what he’s done in the past but since I suspect he’s really had to exert himself to keep it going forward now.
I just can’t help wondering why the thing wouldn’t work exclusively on-line as a subscription mag. and ditch the printed word completely and all the costs that must be associated with that. You could still figure out a way to cater to people who are just browsing around and want to check the thing out for free a bit, and maybe then pay for a short-term trial subscriptions, and etc. and so forth. Then you got more dough for staffers to go to this or that event and cover same for us, or do interviews or whatever.
You could also then run blogs/comment sections underneath each story and from there get a sense of what people are most interested in and what to cover the heaviest.
I dunno, I gotta believe you looked at this kind of thing, but paper just doesn’t make sense to me anymore and I can’t see what’s going to change that.
In any event what do I know, except, again, that it’s good news you’re not folding.
Cheers,
Total agreement with the previous posters. I vote for an optional “30-day online only” way to buy in. I have no interest in the printed paper.
When you’re behind on the monthly payments, in your own life, it’s hard to justify 20 or 30 dollars. But I need a way to log in and check my account at TAC, pay my $4 US monthly, and get emailed whenever I am within 5 days of expiring.
Later, when I am able, I pay the $30 for an annual.
This would fit the lifestyle of students and seniors. But, maybe also, have a “gold members” section, available only to those who have paid continuously for 12 months, and/or pay the annual subscription… maybe, such as the ability to see archives over 6 months old… or maybe open an IM-style chat room for “gold members” only.
I love the print format. It’s fun to turn pages. It’s also nice to have an archive of hard copies. I don’t have all of them, or even half, but I’ve got dozens. I leave them around the house and friends read them from time to time.
Words, especially good ones, like the ones in this magazine, deserve paper. There are lots of good blogs, but there is only one TAC.
Simply: keep up the good work. I have a feeling based on the cycle of ideas and events taking place that this is going to be ‘our time’. A genuine American Conservatism is about to be reborn and this magazine and its contributors (and readers) have and are going to continue to be at the forefront of the battle of ideas and the policies that emanate from them. “We have not yet begun to fight’