pantryslut

Y'all heard about Big Top, right?

I can't find a proper news or press release link, but here's the scoop from Punk Planet's POV:

Last Thursday we received some distressing news--the kind of news
that made our very bones ache when we heard it; the kind of news that
felt so significant we simply couldn't function after it sank in.

With a few days time and the ability to process it, we decided it's
news worth sharing: It was a letter from the president of the
Independent Press Association, the not-for-profit organization that
owns the company that distributes the majority of Punk Planet's
copies, BigTop Newsstand Services. The letter acknowledged the truth
of a rumor that had been running through indie publishing circles for
months now: the distributor was having cash flow problems. Payments
to publishers for magazines already distributed had been and would
continue to be effected for an unknown amount of time. In case you
don't operate a magazine, the money coming in from newsstand sales is
vital to publishers' bottom line. For a magazine like Punk Planet,
where our ad rates remain very low to cater to independent
businesses, those distributor payments are even more critical.

This news leaves us in a tight spot: BigTop is the last distributor
in the country that specializes in distributing independent press
magazines like Punk Planet. When we started 12 years ago, there were
close to a half dozen such distributors; each one that has gone belly
up dragged a few magazines with it. Because BigTop is owned by the
IPA, an organization whose mission is to "amplify" the voice of the
independent press, we don't expect that they will go out of business;
but we also don't know when we will see the money we are owed.

What does this mean for the future of Punk Planet? The truth is we
don't yet know.

But we do know there are things you can do that will help us in both
the short term and the long term.

1. Please consider subscribing (or resubscribing) and purchasing some
merchandise from our webstore today. (http://www.ppmerchtable.com/
Merchant2/merchant.mv) If you have a product, idea, or event to
advertise, purchase an ad. (http://www.punkplanet.com/pages/magazine/
advertising.html)

An immediate influx of cash will allow us to pay off back debts--to
contributors, printers, web hosts, etc--and better enable us to
weather any coming storm caused by nonpayment from our distributor.
Our annual end-of year subscription sale is just starting now—get a
whole year for only $18, or really help us out and buy a couple of
them! http://www.ppmerchtable.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?
Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=PPMT&Category_Code=S

2. Please forward this information--or this whole email--on to your
lists and friends, and specifically ask them to subscribe or buy
merchandise from us.

In addition to a two-year subscription for only $30, you can pick up
any of our amazing books—Joe Meno's HAIRSTYLES OF THE DAMNED, Bee
Lavender's LESSONS IN TAXIDERMY, Mark Anderson's ALL THE POWER, or
Jay Ryan's brand-new 100 POSTERS 134 SQUIRRELS now available for pre-
order! We've also got Punk Planet T-shirts, underpants, and the
awesomely cool PPAP: Punk Planet Artists' Prints wearable art series.
(http://www.ppmerchtable.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?
Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=PPMT)

3. Consider donating to the Community Supported Journalism Fund. It's
a small-fund donations program, made up almost exclusively of
donations of less than $20, but it's already allowed us to bring you
the amazing END OF RADIO cover story of PP69: four full articles on
different aspects of radio creation and tons of teeny interviews with
audio experts: (http://www.independentsdaymedia.com/csj/). It
wouldn't have been possible without your support!

4. Please continue to support independent print media. The payment
issues effecting us are not singular--there are others in the same
predicament that need your support as well.

Thanks so much,

Dan Sinker

Jessica Hopper further notes, "It's all true, IPA, who own Big Top, like the six major alt-magazine stockists that went down before them (since 1999 or so), has given notice to it's magazines that it cannot pay them what they are owed, and does not know when it can. IPA/BT are the primary distributor for Venus, Punk Planet, Tikkun, Bitch, Color Lines, Heeb, Herbivore, MRR, National Socialist Review, Curve, LiP, Wax Poetics, Giant Robot, In These Times, Index, Tablist, Clamor, Anthem, Murder Dog, Mother Jones and the exciting sounding but heretofore unknown to me Biblical Archaelogy Review, amongst about 40 others. Who knows if this will force some of these titles to go on hiatus or whether another distro will spring up and take folks in."