I am a longtime fan and friend of and sometime contributor to Jay Babcock’s Arthur magazine, which offers me and many lonesome others relief from the rest of the wordwad world. Arthur has had downs and ups for the last year or so and today arrives this sudden bad news:

Arthur Magazine needs $20,000 by July 1 or it will die.

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 dot com

Thank you.

Fans of my other pleas-by-proxy may wonder what happened to the eXile, similarly put upon some weeks ago? Well, it shut down, thanks to intense state pressure from the Russian government. I hope to help Jay from getting to that point. Donate at the site.

UPDATE: More from Jay…

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.

UPDATE: As of 11 AM today (Friday) you’ve raised $15,500. And I checked the eXile site and they’re saying they’re saved after all! So thank you all…

UPDATE: $17, 190 at 11 PM. Little more push…

Tags: arthur magazine, jay babcock, save arthur, the exile

Viewing 3 Comments

david 5 months ago 1 point
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Yes, we all love Control Z but sorry all fashion following hippie-shit must die sometime. Babcock is a little squirrel and should have been stock piling his nuts.

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howardx 5 months ago 1 point
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i was just browsing Magpie, looks like he raised 21 grand so far. good news!

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Gunther 5 months ago 1 point
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I feel for the magazine and the publisher, but with my experience in small business, the 20k won't create a solid business plan and a total change of course, it will just allow the company to stay afloat that much longer. I do hope the company can use the extra time wisely as we all need our creative outlets.

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