Pitchfork

For many independent publishers, this fall was a mini-Armageddon with nary a savior in sight. There was fire by way of the New Media/Village Voice merger (Google it, durn it), and brimstone in the form of "cash-flow problems" within the Independent Press Association (IPA).

Why should you, gentle shaggy-haired reader, care about the IPA? You should care about the IPA because it operates BigTop, a major indie press distributor. Essentially, BigTop is the liason between magazine distributors-- from Barnes and Noble on down to your friendly neighborhood bookstore-- and magazine publishers. The non-profit represents roughly 80 critical music/culture titles including Punk Planet, Venus, Bitch, Giant Robot, and Maximum Rock and Roll.

In other words, these are the magazines you stole from your big brother, the magazines you moved to the rackfronts at your dead-end retail job. These are the magazines you read while your seventh-grade-swirlie dried. Secretly, you knew that they would give you more strength than those barbells ever could.

But just like you in junior high, these are also the magazines that must fight to survive. Virtually all of them depend on their monthly distribution check, and so BigTop's announcement of financial difficulties was potentially devastating. In an October 19 e-mail, IPA Executive Director Richard Landry apologized for the late payments: "The reasons are numerous," he wrote, "but they really boil down to the fact that independent newsstand distributors require a lot of working cash. The long return and payment cycles work to the advantage of the biggest distributors and retailers, and to the disadvantage of the rest of us...Though we are confident that we will ultimately be successful in obtaining the necessary resources, we still have a lot of work ahead of us."

The smash was particularly bone-crunching for Punk Planet, the indie zine celebre fresh from its 12th anniversary. Earlier this year, editor Dan Sinker made the decision to switch from Mordam Records, a Sacramento distributor, to the San Francisco-based BigTop. The only catch was BigTop's payment terms, which would force Punk Planet to go for nearly six months without receiving payment for zines sold. "We knew that the payment lag was going to hurt," Sinker told Pitchfork, "but BigTop's reputation as a distributor that paid on time was well established. We figured we could just hang on."

For Venus editor (and 11-year indie publishing vet) Amy Schroeder, things got fishy in late summer, when she began calling BigTop about an overdue payment. "After receiving a number of 'the check's coming next week' responses for several weeks, I figured something was up," she said.

Meanwhile, Punk Planet was about $16,000 in debt. "That's massive for a magazine like us," says Sinker. "When Landry's letter came, the future of the magazine became instantly uncertain."

Worse, not even the recess bell can save these presses. Throughout the last decade, every independent press, save for BigTop, has gone belly-up. If BigTop follows suit, "there's literally nowhere else to go," Sinker said. Even Schroeder, who calls herself "one of the most optimistic folks in publishing," is hard-pressed for a positive spin: "Does the BigTop distribution situation suck? It sure does." Thankfully, a few Tater Tots remain unsmushed. Both Venus and Punk Planet have just sent their winter issues to press. Venus is examining other distribution agencies, and Punk Planet's fans have rallied, halving the zine's debt via gobs of subscriptions and t-shirt sales. "This situation has brought a lot of publishers together in a new way," said Sinker. "It renews focus in the independent press and makes people realize that it's still very vital that it exists, that it's important, and that it's worth supporting directly."

So give up yr soy-two-pump-chai and subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Also: continue patronizing the distributors. "Though BigTop is behind in paying," said Schroeder, "they do plan to pay. If you stop buying Venus on the newsstand, it will hurt us."

"In the best case scenario," said Sinker, "this situation creates an opportunity for a new model that gets magazines into people's hands in a way that's more equitable and reasonable for small press." In other words, if the elevator tries to break you down, punch a higher floor.

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