We love when brand new magazines come into the Utne Reader office. Today, issue number one of Electric Bike showed up in the mail. The magazine covers the electric bicycle industry and is put out by the same folks who publish Velo Vision magazine, another beacon of two-wheeled wisdom in our library. Editor Peter Eland explains the purpose and goals of the magazine: “This is an exciting time in the electric bike world, with the technology developing fast. A dedicated magazine for the industry is, we think, long overdue. So we’re here to review the bikes, to pass on essential information and buying advice, and to keep you up to date with the latest technology.”

Check out the digital edition below:

Sources:  Electric Bike ,  Velo Vision  

We’ve been fans of the solution-oriented research and policy magazine Miller-McCune for awhile (we even gave it the Utne Independent Press Award for best science/tech coverage in 2009), but now it’s in the mainstream spotlight of the Los Angeles Times. In his rather favorable profile of the magazine and its founder Sara Miller McCune, reporter James Rainey describes the publication as “that bright and earnest new student, full of promise but still striving to get closer to the head of the class.” Rainey feels the magazine could appeal to a broader base and bring in more “everyday characters from outside academia.” True enough, but you have to admit that Miller-McCune does a fine job of making all that wonky research highly digestible.

Source: Los Angeles Times

There is no better place to encounter the wide world than a carefully curated rack of magazines for sale.  A newsstand is a holy place. There are fewer of them every year and that makes them holier still. Maybe it’s the illusion of abundance that attracts some of us to newsstands—magazines are shutting down every day, but that’s impossible to believe when you’re staring at hundreds of them.

Maybe that’s why I can’t stop staring at this photograph…

Image by  Tiago Ribeiro , licensed under  Creative Commons . 

POZ, an indispensable magazine of “life, health, & HIV,” turns 15 this year—and to mark its anniversary, the publication is donating all advertising revenue from its forthcoming May issue to the Denver Principles Project, a new initiative from the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) that seeks to dramatically increase the group’s membership and, as it follows, political and social clout.

In its March issue, POZ asks people to (re)commit to the cause:

The last eight years have seen a dramatic reversal of what our movement accomplished in the early years:

• Science-based HIV prevention programs have been gutted in favor of abstinence-only or abstinence-until-marriage programs. The result? Hundreds of thousands of new HIV infections, mostly among young people of color.
• Hysteria-driven prosecution of people with HIV for failing to disclose their status has helped create an image of so-called “AIDS Monsters” in the media and further fueled the criminalization—and stigmatization—of people with HIV. The result? We are increasingly marginalized and portrayed as vectors of disease who must be controlled and regulated rather than as what we are: human beings struggling with a life-threatening disease who deserve compassion, human rights and adequate, affordable health care.
• While the United States has technically lifted the specific ban on HIV-positive people from entering the country, HIV remains on the list of contagious diseases that can be used to prohibit people with HIV from immigrating to or visiting America. The result? The nation that represents itself as a beacon of freedom is, instead, a leader in discrimination, setting a shameful example of intolerance and ignorance.

Now, it is time for all people who want to end the AIDS epidemic to recommit to the spirit of The Denver Principles—thus ensuring that the voices of people with HIV are heard.

In addition to donating May’s ad revenue, POZ also will republish the original Denver Principles manifesto, which, drafted in 1983, articulated the foundation of the self-empowerment movement for people with HIV/AIDS. To get involved in the Denver Principles Project, visit NAPWA online.

More to read/love: POZ is an Utne Independent Press Award winner for health/wellness coverage. Its editor in chief Regan Hofmann recently guest blogged for our daily best-of-the-web extravaganza, Alt Wire.

Source: POZ

If you never picked up a copy of MAP Magazine, the Miami based art and culture quarterly, you blew it. It’s gone now—shuttered by a cash-strapped publisher with a completed issue ready for the printer. It’s the cruelest brand of magazine death. That interview with Gore Vidal and Chip Kidd? Gone. That piece on the art scene in Berlin? On a hard drive somewhere. The multiple covers created exclusively for the issue by an esteemed art collective? Wasted time.

We first got word of MAP’s demise from Twitter user themediaisdying. An email to (former) MAP editor Omar Sommereyns bounced. We finally tracked him down and arranged an interview. What follows is a little bit of inside baseball and a lot of hurt. And it’s reminder that the best magazines are a labor of love first and a business second. That might be why the best magazines don’t always make it.

UTNE READER: You only made it to six issues. What happened?

OMAR SOMMEREYNS: Yes, it was six issues, but MAP was a quarterly culture publication packed with content. There was always a lot to read—no cheap tidbits only feature narratives, interviews, a fashion section, and columns.

I knew that it would be a serious challenge. Part of it was the location. In Miami the publishing arena is mostly plagued by vacuous glossies and ad-rags. This isn't exactly a literary town. It had never encountered a magazine with a truly intellectual and culturally-relevant approach; with more long-form pieces and serious content.

Our subscriptions, feedback on the content, and readership kept growing exponentially with each issue. But the marketing people were still not selling enough ads, and the economic downturn certainly didn't help. It simply came to a point where the publishers couldn't afford to produce the magazine anymore. 

UR: I remember being surprised to learn the magazine was out of Miami.

OS: MAP was really created out of need. There was nothing like it down here, and we felt that there needed to be, especially since there is a compelling culture scene in Miami that gets overlooked by excessively disseminated South Beach stereotypes. And in addition to covering interesting aspects of the local scene, we offered features and interviews on an international level—from an insider's reportage on the surreal world of Bollywood to an interview with reclusive and famed French writer Michel Houellebecq. 

UR: Are you proud of what MAP accomplished in six issues?

OS: I'm happy we managed to create a visually and editorially stimulating publication with very little resources. I mean, our editorial budget was hardly commensurate to what we accomplished, and we were able to build something meaningful for a while, thanks to the gracious efforts and talents of several writers, artists, photographers, and dear friends of mine. Art director Andrew Bouchie’s innovative design for the magazine was a big part of its success—readers would constantly commend the design, in addition to the stories themselves.

I feel stifled and frustrated since we weren't even close to reaching our apex, and the creative progression of the magazine was utterly halted. I was still full of ideas and just coming close to realizing how far we could go creatively with MAP. 

UR: How quickly did MAP's publisher shut out the lights? Were you given any warning at all?

OS: I had a sense that things weren't going well for some time, but I was quite disappointed that we didn't get to publish our Winter 08/09 issue. It was by far our strongest—a whole new level for us. A few days before going to press, my publishers let me know that the magazine was shutting down, with everything paid for, except we couldn't afford to publish that last issue. That'll always haunt me. 

UR: Should anybody be starting a magazine like MAP in this climate?

I would never say no. I commend and encourage any endeavors in independent publishing, but people should be aware that it's really going to be a battle, most notably in establishing a good dichotomy between editorial integrity and business acumen, while trying to make money and stay afloat.

I think we tried our best at MAP. Many great publications and creative activity spring from tough times. It all depends on people's moxie and true independent spirit, plus constant faith in your vision. And, of course, real financial backing to begin with helps a lot. Nonetheless, with any publication like this, there's always a risk factor, but you just kind of have to jump in and see if it works.

MAP Magazine launched in Spring 2007 and was shuttered in December 2008. The magazine is still online and worth a visit--if only to download PDF files of each issue for your digital archives.

The decline of newspaper readership is well documented. But research shows that this negative trend has not affected more “cerebral” weekly and monthly magazines. It seems counterintuitive, but as Stephen Glover of the Independent explains, it actually makes sense when you take a closer look.

Why has newspaper readership gone down? Most blame the internet, which makes a physical copy of the publication almost obsolete. But much of the content of magazines is also online, so why are they thriving while newspapers are foundering?

One factor is timeliness: how many of us have felt it was “too late” to read that day’s paper, that we could catch up with the weekend edition or on the website? How many of us simply don’t have time to sit down and read much of anything on a daily basis? Cerebral publications put out weekly or monthly, on the other hand, are less time-sensitive. In addition, they tend to have a better sense of their readers. They aren’t afraid to tailor their content to a specific audience in lieu of going for a massive slice of the population and seeing what sticks. Not to mention that reading a magazine is more of an enjoyable, leisurely activity. “There are few greater innocent pleasures in this life than curling up on a sofa, or on a rug in the garden, or even on the train, with a decent magazine in one's hands.” A decent magazine like, say, the Utne Reader?

(Thanks, The Editors Weblog)

Most news about international journalists focuses on reporters imprisoned, killed, or otherwise silenced. Morbid news of this sort does take up some space in the “World Watch” department of Global Journalist (issue not available online), but the magazine is adept at balancing stories about the challenges journalists face with the positive achievements of media-makers worldwide. 

The Spring issue of Global Journalist, published by the Missouri Journalism School, features a photo essay of an Afghan family grieving the death of a young mother. The images, by photojournalist Jean Chung, offer an intimate glimpse into maternal deaths in Afghanistan, which claims the world's second highest maternal mortality rate. Another story traces how Kenya’s government increased control over the media, hoping it could also control post-election violence. I also enjoyed a quick two-page primer explaining why Russian journalism programs fail to produce critical reporters. There’s a string of rosier stories, too, about the importance of covering women’s news, generous media attention given to the Australian prime minister's apology to Aboriginal people, and a program to empower Brazilian youth by creating a community newspaper.

—Lisa Gulya

Still reeling from the loss of No Depression, music lovers suffered another blow last week when Harp magazine announced that it was shutting down after seven years of publishing. The official statement on the magazine’s website cites the “decline of the music software industry, coupled with the consolidation of the consumer magazine newsstand business and rising paper and postage costs,” as reasons why it ceased publication.

The final issue, which arrived in the Utne library two weeks ago, contains a very funny dispatch from the world’s longest running Beatles fan convention in Las Vegas, and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters officially announced his campaign for president. They will be missed.

—Bennett Gordon

One of most expansive science news sources around, the New Scientist, is up for sale, the International Herald Tribune reports. The weekly magazine has been covering every aspect of the scientific community since the 1950s. Now their parent company, Reed Elsevier, has decided to unload all of their publications, including Variety and Publisher’s Weekly. Anybody got a few extra million dollars lying around?

—Bennett Gordon

In the latest episode of the UtneCast, editor in chief David Schimke and librarian Danielle Maestretti sit down with Utne.com assistant editor Bennett Gordon to talk about the 2007 Utne Independent Press Awards. After 19 years, the awards have changed quite a bit, with two new categories (In-Depth/Investigative and Health/Wellness) added this year. Schimke and Maestretti talk about the new categories and how the staff picked the best magazines of the year. 

For more on the awards, visit www.utne.com/uipa2007, and stay tuned for Part 2 of our UtneCast on the winners. 

 UtneCast: UIPA 2007 : Play in Popup