I was very much encouraged by the energy of the women who came to the meeting. One of the things we discussed was the viability of taking the magazine to print.
There are many factors which make that a difficult and risky undertaking, and we were brainstorming ways around them all.
The first and foremost problem is money. The format common to this area is that of the free paper supported by advertising. However, most of the advertising dollars in this county go to the big three: Good Times, Metro, and Sentinel. (And let's not forget the Merc.) The many excellent papers such as The Manifesto, La Gazette, Mid County Post, etc, share all the remaining ad dollars. Listening to others who have produced such papers locally, I know that collecting those advertising dollars is a time consuming and frustrating experience. And the business (more like a glorified hobby) does not pay a salary that could replace a day job, so it would be done in my spare time.
One of the ways around this is to make the paper at least partially supported by subscriptions. How do you make that work when the paper is already free? You don't!
So, one of the ideas at the meeting (and for the participants, I'd love to remember exactly who came up with what but we didn't take notes and I can't remember) was to have some issues subscription-only. I remembered that there was a paper, The Doula, that did exactly that several years ago. I think it is a far better solution than the 35 cent donation coin slot that both The Comic News and Matrix(former local feminist paper) tried with limited success. The subscription-only issue could be available for a price at Herland, also, for people that don't get the subscription but would be willing to pay for that issue.
Articles from the subscription-only issue would be only partially available on line, with ordering information for those who would like to read that issue. I would make my own writing available in its entirety, and the calendar would always be available at no cost.
I would also market in national women's publications to get more subscriptions and be able to court advertisers nationally as well. (And internationally, since I get hits from Europe, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand.)
Then there is merchandising and holding benefits to raise additional funds. Women's Dances, T-Shirts, performance events, bumper stickers...whatever we can think of.
I brought up the idea of guest-editing for some issues, allowing groups locally who specialize in a particular area of activism to create a theme issue. The Self-Defense Co Op would be one of the groups we would approach. I'd also love to revisit the women who created the Fat Pride issue of Matrix to find out what's been happening in the past decade of the Fat Acceptance movement. I wouldn't make all issues theme issues, but I think there is great value in examining a theme from many angles and experiences. Guest editors would take on some of the burden of finding advertisers for that issue, drawing on some of their own business contacts.
I have also wanted to find a young editor for an Uppity Girls section of the magazine. If you know any young women who would like to work on that, please contact me.
We came up with a few slogans for t-shirts and bumper stickers, such as:
Uppity Women: Out of the kitchen and in your face! (Sam Cody)
Uppity Women do it up close and personal. (A. J. Heard)
Uppity Women kick patriarchal butt. (Elaine Charkowski)
I invite women to send me more ideas--they can go on t-shirts, bumper stickers, mugs, book marks, whatever...I'm sure over time I can use them all.
I also invite input--do you want to see Uppity Women go to print? If so, how often would you like to see it? The options I see are monthy, quarterly, or the present 6 issues a year. For a monthly issue I'd need people willing to help out in some capacity, perhaps also an intern or two from the university or Cabrillo. Otherwise I'd burn out pretty quickly. If there's any money left over after producing the magazine, I'd say it should be split between those of us working on it.
After we finished talking about the business end of things we had fun just getting acquainted. We ended up, somehow, on the subject of Barbie dolls and someone, I think Elaine, told us about "feral Cheryl" a wild Barbie-like doll sold in Australia. She sounded like the doll version of Mad Max.
If you'd like to be on a mailing list for our next meeting time and date, let me know--
Take care and stay Uppity!
Tapati Amber Sarasvati