Out With The Dreck, In With Handy Andy

Just this AM, this blogger canceled his subscription to Time. The cover of the September 25, 2009 issue carried a full-page of Glen Dreck of Faux News. Previously, this blogger had signed an online protest petition to all of Dreck's advertisers that resulted in massive ad cancellations for Dreck's show on Faux News. (Glen Dreck is brought to you by Ginsu Knives!) The offensive Time issue went into the trash without being opened. No more Dreck. Now, on the other hand, Handy Andy (Sullivan) of The Atlantic has appealed — in his blog — for his readers to subscribe to the dead-tree version of The Atlantic. Handy Andy appeared in this blog just last week. This blogger will subscribe to The Atlantic in lieu of Time, but he will probably stop short of killing trees and go for the online version. Nonetheless, no more Dreck and his weepin' racist eyes. If this is (fair & balanced) retribution, so be it.

[x NY Fishwrap]
A Blogger Makes a Pitch for Supporting Print
By Stephanie Clifford

Tag Cloud of the following article

according although andrew appeal atlantic audit blogger bureau circulation cover criticized double forum frame give hard input interest lauf letter limited magazine media month mr open orders pages percent period political post print publisher readers reason rose six subscribe subscriptions sullivan support things trouble understandably used whenever wonderful written year

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Handy Andy, Boy Blogger

Blogs are often criticized for helping to kill print media. Last week, though, the prominent political blogger Andrew Sullivan used his forum on TheAtlantic.com to tell readers to subscribe to the print edition of the magazine.

It worked. Within two days after last Monday’s post, Mr. Sullivan’s appeal pulled in 75 percent of the subscriptions that the Web site draws in a typical month, the magazine’s publisher, Jay Lauf, said. The Atlantic expects this month’s subscription orders to be double an average month’s.

Mr. Sullivan said he was happy that his “open letter to George W. Bush on torture” had made the magazine’s cover, although such a cover has limited commercial appeal, and that led to the spontaneous post about subscriptions.

“With old media in crisis, a decision like that is understandably making some general interest magazines an endangered species,” Mr. Sullivan said in his post.

The Atlantic is having trouble, at least on the advertising side. Ad pages fell 25 percent in the first six months of this year from the same period last year, according to Publishers Information Bureau. However, there is demand on the reader side: circulation rose 6.8 percent in the same time frame, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Mr. Lauf said he was delighted with Mr. Sullivan’s note, but it was not anything he was going to instruct other writers to do.

Mr. Sullivan said he had written the post without any input from executives.

“Whenever I feel grateful for some reason that The Atlantic still exists, I give it a shot,” he said. “Many readers care enough to want to support media that say the hard things and do the uncommercial things. It’s actually wonderful, I think, that new media can support old media in this way.” Ω

[Stephanie Clifford covers advertising and marketing for the New York Times media desk. Prior to joining the Times in 2008, she was a senior writer at Inc. magazine. Clifford graduated with a degree in English, magna cum laude, from Harvard College. She was executive editor of the Harvard Crimson.]

Copyright © 2009 The New York Times Company

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