Arthur Mag Strapped, Seeking Donations

Respected underground magazine in debt and asking readers to help out.

By Fred Mills

With issue #29 of West Coast magazine Arthur en route to the printer — the mighty underground music, arts, politics and culture mag will feature Sparks on the cover — the publication has officially run of of money and has accumulated significant debt. So in an ingenious stroke, owner Jay Babcock (who, as you may remember, acquired Arthur about a year ago in the aftermath of a falling out with his original business partner that had left the mag up on blocks for an extended spell) is soliciting donations to keep it afloat.

He’s also got a deadline: July 1. Read on, and get those PayPal accounts fired up.

From Jay Babcock: 

One year ago I ran up my credit cards and borrowed money from friends  

and family in order to buy out my ex-partner in Arthur. Since then I  

have maxed out my personal and business credit cards to service that  

debt and to start up publication of Arthur again. We have worked very  

hard with very little resources: some of us could afford to work pro  

bono, others could afford to work at well below market, still others  

couldn�t afford to work for Arthur but did it anyway.

 

Still, we have bills to pay, and debt to service. Starting up again  

costs money. And my credit cards are now maxed out.

 

On the heels of lower than expected ad sales (although they are  

trending up), increased production and distribution costs (higher  

quality printing and paper, higher fuel costs, increased printrun),  

and an �under-performing non-magazine product� (the Living Theatre  

dvd, for which we�ve sold less than 25% of the printrun since launch,  

received zero reviews or notices, etc), spiraling debt service  

payments (now $2k a month) on startup costs, and most importantly ZERO  

NEW BACKERS� we�ve finally reached the point where

 

WE HAVE NO MORE MONEY.

 

If we don�t obtain at least $20k in the next six days, ARTHUR is done.  

Our long-term prospects are good, if we are fortunate enough to make  

it through this rough patch.

 

Please help. No donation is too small.

 

Our preferred method of payment is Paypal. It is a free service to  

buyers, and enables you to pay directly By VISA, MASTERCARD, AMEX,  

DISCOVER or from your checking account or debit card. You can also  

convert foreign currency to U.S. dollars. Signing up only takes a few  

minutes.
 

Please use PayPal to make a donation to editor at Arthurmag.com

 

Thank you.

 

Jay Babcock

Arthur Magazine