Even in a (barely) recovering economy, this is not a good time to be in the serious magazine business. Still, the email I received today that The American Prospect will close without an immediate infusion of cash was a bit of a stunner. And it raises real questions about the commitment of progressive movement leaders and funders to the movement's media infrastructure.
Especially since I joined the Campaign for America's Future as its web editor several years ago, I have come to appreciate The Prospect's clear-eyed and thoughtful analysis and its commitment to the old-school values of good writing, good editing and, to borrow a line from the TV ads for The Nation magazine, "fact-checked facts."
Unfortunately, The Prospect is also an example of what happens when we don't properly support the institutions that are central to forging and disseminating a progressive narrative about America and its issues. The magazine has struggled to build circulation and visibility, even among inside-the-Beltway policy wonks, and has too often been unable to keep its best talent when other deeper-pocketed media outlets come calling. (The most prominent recent example is Ezra Klein being wooed over to The Washington Post.)
But this isn't just about The Prospect. Name one independent progressive media outlet that strives to do professional-level journalism and commentary that isn't living hand-to-mouth. Name one that could weather another sharp dip in the economy without having to slash its budget or see its existence imperiled. Even hardy perennials like The Nation continually fund-raise to maintain relatively spartan existences.
My OurFuture.org colleague Terrence Heath explains what's wrong with all of this on The Republic of T blog. It's a lesson we apparently still have yet to learn:
The right has a media infrastructure because they invested in it. They have no shortage of talent, because they seek out young talent, nurture it, support it, and promote it when ready for primetime. As long as one doesn’t stray too far from the fold, you’ll find a place somewhere. (Let’s face it. There are people earning a good living in conservative media who would probably not be able to get a job anywhere else.) In fact, you could end up with a paycheck for life — and a substantial one at that.
We are not letting ours die. We’ve never really had one in the first place, because we’ve never really owned it as a movement — certainly not to the degree conservatives have. It’s something that’s been built up in a piecemeal fashion by the apocryphal “bloggers in pajamas,” but not really supported in strategic fashion. Progressives got the jump on conservatives online, but they will catch up to us for the same reasons they’ve left us in the dust when it comes to other media.
Every morning when I go to work, there is a person at the train station waiting to hand me a free copy of The Washington Examiner, the paper bankrolled by the arch-conservative Philip Anschutz and his Clarity Media Group. (The group also owns The Weekly Standard and several broadcast properties.) The Examiner is nothing more than a sandwich of right-wing talking points between slices of local news and sports. I see working-class people on their daily commute being dunked in Heritage Foundation-style propaganda, without an effective progressive counterweight.
Is The Examiner making money? Who knows? It doesn't seem to be. Is it sending out frantic emails asking for $25 donations? Not in your life. Minds prepped for manipulation in a conservative ideological war are priceless.
I fixate on this because I'm an ex-print journalist. You can debate whether a progressive newspaper to go toe-to-toe with The Examiner or fill-in-the-blank conservative print outlet in your home town is the best use of a progressive millionaire's money. But I don't think its debatable that the best use of a good chunk of our dollars--from progressive millionaires to those of us who can't spare more than a few dollars--is in an independent progressive media infrastructure that nurtures and sustains good journalists and expert commentators, one that tells our story, exposes the heresies and failures of the other side and fights for our values.
Perhaps The American Prospect can't -- or shouldn't -- survive in the progressive idea marketplace. But if we make the collective decision to allow The Prospect to die, it should be because we have better outlets to put our collective economic weight, and because we're committed to giving those outlets room to breathe and to thrive, room to focus on going head-to-head with conservatives to get the progressive narrative into the bloodstream of the country, rather than fretting over where the money for the next issue or broadcast will come from.
The choice is clear: Keep complaining about how conservative media out-muscle us or decide that we'll give our own media outlets a fighting chance to build their own muscle so they can fight more effectively for us. It's time for those of us who complain about conservative media to put our money where our mouth is.