This thesis has been approved by

The Honors Tutorial College and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism

______

Dr. Hans Meyer

Associate Professor and Associate Director for Undergraduate Studies, Journalism

Thesis Adviser

______

Dr. Victoria LaPoe, Journalism

______

Dr. Donal Skinner

Dean, Honors Tutorial College

1 JACOBIN MAGAZINE, COMMUNITY JOURNALISM, AND THE

LEGACY OF AMERICAN SOCIALIST PUBLICATIONS IN THE EARLY

TWENTIETH CENTURY

______

A Thesis

Presented to

The Honors Tutorial College

Ohio University

______

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with the degree of

Bachelor of Science in Journalism

______

By

Eleanor Bishop

April 2021

2 Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Hans Meyer, and Director of Study Dr.Victoria

LaPoe for their patience and support with me during the year that has made my brain turn into a bowl of oatmeal. I couldn’t have done this without my friends (especially Maggie Prosser, Krissy

Wahlers and Katie Nolan), my family — who have always supported my weird niche interests and put up with my political rants — and my girlfriend Mady Nutter, who has been my literal shoulder to cry on through the last year. I love you all.

Introduction

A high-society event, 1906: men and women in tailored suits and ballgowns lounge around white-clothed tables, clinking glasses and silver cutlery. Lights dance across white marble statues and the gleaming ballroom floors. Suddenly—a rumble from below, like low thunder. The conversation stops. All eyes are on the floor, where the polished tiles appear to shake. The rumbling turns to a deliberate, forceful rapping. Wide cracks snake across the marble as the floor splinters open to reveal a single raised fist.

Down below, men and women with dirty faces and ruddy clothes crouch together, huddled in the dark. Their faces are anguished, and some are collapsed in exhaustion, but most have their arms raised above their heads — not in solidarity but in desperation. They are holding up everything: the ballroom floor, the pure white tables, the marble statues and the people above in their black- tie attire. But not for much longer. It looks like things are about to come tumbling down.

3 This striking scene, depicted in J.A. Mitchell’s cartoon “From the Depths” (based on a painting by Balfour Ker) (Cohen, n.d.) was distributed to more than 270,000 people across the country on the front cover of Appeal to Reason’s December 29, 1906 edition (Wayland, 1906, p.1). The

Appeal, America’s most popular socialist publication to date (Armstrong 1981, p. 38) was supported by devoted subscribers, largely working-class men and women (Graham, 1990, p. 11).

The popularity of the socialist press – and of socialism itself – in the first two decades of the 20th century is an underreported facet of both journalism (Armstrong, 1981, p. 38) and American history (Graham, 1990, p. 1).

In 2010, in an America that was both vastly different and yet in some ways eerily similar to that of 1906, a college student and longtime DSA member had the idea to start a socialist magazine

(Baird, 2019). In these two parallel Americas, socialist publications found devoted audiences, but faced the challenge of keeping them without losing sight of their own goals.

American socialist publications have all grappled with the conundrum of staying financially stable within a capitalist society. This has historically resulted in two outcomes: a compromise of values to increase funding like increased advertising, exploitive labor practices and/or the courting of wealthy donors, or the publication's demise. How does modern American socialist magazine Jacobin fall into this American tradition of socialist media? How has it stayed financially stable, and how has its content changed, if at all, in its 10 years of operation? The purpose of this thesis is to analyze Jacobin’s content and business practices and place it into the greater historical context of American socialist media.

4 Literature Review

What is Socialism?

One of the challenges of writing about something as polarizing and ideologically complex as socialism has been finding sources that are not carrying a heavy positive or negative bias. To define the idea in as politically neutral a way as possible, the encyclopedia is a good place to start: Britannica defines socialism as the “social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources” (Ball & Dagger,

2021). Although how to get to this position or even to what degree this public ownership should exist has been debated amongst socialists since its formal inception, the public ownership of the means of production, or the land, labor and capital needed to produce goods and services (Means of Production, n.d.), has been central to its definition (Meek, 1957, p. 135). Socialist ideas and societies operating under socialist principles existed for millennia before Karl Marx (Hudis,

2018) from medieval Christian monastic orders (Smith, 2011 p. 4) to the “utopian socialists” of the mid-1800s (Ball & Dagger, 2021).

Karl Marx

While Marx did not invent socialism, he is considered one of its most important theorists (Ball &

Dagger, 2021). Marx, who lived from 1818 to 1883, was a philosopher, historian, economist, political theorist and journalist whose writings, along with those of his collaborator and friend

Fredrich Engels, are the foundation of Marxism and much of the modern conceptualization of communism and socialism. Marxism is considered “the dominant ideological tradition” within socialism:

5 “Marxism originated in the attempt to see the failure of liberalism (and capitalism) in a

historically conscious way. A Marxist is someone who attempts to understand why the

shift from an unenlightened order to an enlightened order was not as successful as many

had anticipated, and then attempts to understand how socialism can be the historical

completion of this shift” (Alexander, 2015, p. 987).

In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels present a materialist conception of history: the idea that history can be understood as “the story of struggles between classes over material or economic interests and resources” (Ball & Dagger, 2021). Under capitalism, these classes in conflict are the bourgeoisie, who control the means of production and therefore the wealth, and the laborers, or proletariat, who are “slaves of the bourgeois class and of the bourgeois state”

(Marx & Engels, 2021). Marx and Engels write that “[the bourgeoisie’s] fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable” (Marx & Engels, 2021). In pursuit of increasingly global capitalism, the bourgeoisie will exploit the proletariat more and more, leading the proletariat around the world to unite against this oppressive force and seize the means of production in revolution, using “despotic inroads” (Marx & Engels, 2021) if necessary, to establish a

“dictatorship of the proletariat” (Ball & Dagger, 2021). During this time, credit, industry and the means of transportation and communication would be centralized and owned by the state (Marx

& Engels, 2021). Once a classless, socialist society is established and resources are evenly distributed, “the public power will lose its political character … in place of the bourgeois society with its classes and class antagonisms we shall have an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all” (Marx & Engels, 2021).

6 In Capital, Marx introduces the theory of surplus value. Surplus value is “produced by the worker after he or she has produced the value of his or her wages” (The Marxist Project, 2019).

Marx posits that under capitalism, since the proletariat does not own their own labor but are hired out for their work by the bourgeoisie, they are forced to work more than would be necessary simply to earn their own wages. This extra work creates “surplus value” which is collected by the bourgeoisie. “To make a profit, Marx argued, the capitalist appropriates this surplus value, thereby exploiting the laborer” (Britannica, 2016).

The importance of labor is also emphasized in the idea of commodity fetishism, also outlined in

Capital. This is “the tendency, within a capitalist system, for social relations between people to appear as a relationship between things” (Hudson & Hudson, 2003, p. 415). This concept is colorfully illustrated in an excerpt from Wallace Shawn’s The Fever:

“People say about everything that it has a certain value. This is worth that. This coat, this

sweater, this cup of coffee: each thing worth some quantity of money, or some number of

other things -- one coat, worth three sweaters, or so much money -- as if that coat,

suddenly appearing on the earth, contained somewhere inside itself an amount of value,

like an inner soul, as if the coat were a fetish, a physical object that contains a living

spirit. But what really determines the value of a coat? The coat's price comes from its

history, the history of all the people who were involved in making it and selling it and all

the particular relationships they had. And if we buy the coat, we, too, form relationships

with all of those people, and yet we hide those relationships from our own awareness by

7 pretending we live in a world where coats have no history but just fall down from heaven

with prices marked inside” (Shawn, 1990).

This concept is specific to capitalism because in a system where “production is not planned but performed by the uncoordinated decisions of independent commodity producers” (Hudson &

Hudson, 2003, p. 415) it is easy to ignore the human element of production. Under socialism, with individuals in charge of their own labor, the social character of commodities is emphasized.

“Labor takes on a social character prior to the exchange of products, on the basis of the communal character of production. No outside force, such as socially necessary labor time, decides the pace or nature of work; the producers decide that for themselves” (Hudis, 2018).

Socialism in America

The Socialist Party

American socialism, reached its height of influence in 1912 (Maik, 1994, p. 6) when Eugene V.

Debs, running as the Socialist Party’s candidate, won 6% of the national presidential vote, the highest the Socialist Party would ever receive (Salvatore 264). The party had been experiencing rapid growth since 1908, and by the 1912 election it stood at 117,984 members (Maik, 1994, p.

7), elected 34 mayors and saw 667 party officials holding state and local office (Maik, 1994, p.

9).

The American socialist movement was born out the Populist and union movements (Heideman,

2017). Both groups formed around expanding the rights of working people: the Populists focused on poor farmers and the union movement backed workers – particularly factory and railroad

8 laborers like those who participated in the 1894 Pullman Strike. This strike uplifted Debs to national prominence for his role as President of the American Railway Union at the time and subsequent jailing for his involvement in the strike (Salvatore, 2007, p. 174).

In 1898 Debs and Victor Berger, an Austrian immigrant and staunch Marxist (Heideman, 2017) formed the Social Democratic Party, which demanded “the overthrown of capitalism … [and] a series of immediate demands concerning nationalization of resources, legislation to improve working conditions, equality for women and a program for farmers” (Salvatore, 2007, p.167). In

1901, the SDP joined with a faction of the Socialist Labor Party led by Morris Hilquit to officially form the Socialist Party of America. Even at its founding convention, the party faced an ideological disagreement that would plague it for its entire existence; the question of endorsing reforms like municipal ownership of utilities and election equity (Salvatore, 2007, p.

189) vs. calling for total revolution (Heideman, 2017). In 1901 at least, the party came to a compromise, “which presented immediate demands as but a step to the full revolution”

(Salvatore, 2007, p. 189).

Berger moved away from Marxism and began embracing the ideas of German socialist Eduard

Bernstein, who called for reform only, with the assumption that reforms would gradually move the world towards socialism without the need for revolution (Heideman, 2017). This idea became characteristic of the Socialist Party’s right wing. Members of the right discouraged class-struggle rhetoric so as not to alienate middle class reformers (Heideman, 2017) and supported craft unionism –unions for “skilled” laborers divided by trade (Meeks, 2019), in contrast to industrial unionism like that of the Debs-backed Industrial Workers of the World (Salvatore, 2007, p. 206)

9 which organized workers of all skill levels by industry (Meeks, 2019). The IWW, led by William

“Big Bill” Haywood (Heideman, 2017), emphasized class struggle and revolution over reform and gained support from left side party members. IWW members, called “Wobblies,” became more and more revolutionary, eschewing any attempts to gain power electorally, causing rifts within the party. “The split over the Wobblies was the most profound political schism in the

Socialist Party’s short history, and it would define politics in the party for much of the remainder of the decade” (Heideman, 2017).

Along with the right-left divide, the Socialist Party clashed on issues of immigration, women’s rights, and race, with these arguments largely boiling down to xenophobia, sexism, racism and class reductionist attitudes (Cozzarelli, 2020) among both sides of the party (Heideman, 2017).

Besides inter-party conflict, the Socialist Party faced the impenetrable American two-party system. Although Debs’ political rallies during his presidential campaigns were often met with sold out crowds and adoring fans, this popularity didn’t seem to translate proportionally to the voting booth (Heideman, 2017). This was in part due to the Republicans and Democrats started including some of the same reform ideas in their platforms. A 1917 report on the Party’s standing argued that “the politicians of the old parties had successfully adjusted their rhetoric and even, to an extent, their programs, to demands for reform without losing control. The assumed connection between from reform and socialism was becoming, therefore, highly debatable”

(Salvatore, 2007, p. 268).

10 By April 1917, as the United States prepared to enter World War I, the Socialist Party met and released the “St. Louis Manifesto” (Heideman, 2017), a unified antiwar statement. The party proclaimed that “wars bring wealth and power to the ruling classes, and suffering, death, and demoralization to the workers (Davenport, 2012 ) … The working class of the United States has no quarrel with the working class of Germany or of any other country” (Davenport, 2012). They opposed conscription, censorship, and called for the socialization of industry and land “to protect the masses of the American people from the pressing danger of starvation which the war in

Europe has brought upon them, and which the entry of the United States has already accentuated” (Davenport, 2012).

Although this declaration caused some members to leave the party, it also attracted the attention of “a large reservoir of antiwar sentiment” (Heideman, 2017), causing party membership to grow back up to 104,000 (membership had been declining since 1912) (Heideman, 2017) and leading to electoral victories from Dayton to New York (Heideman, 2017). This was despite government crack downs on socialist publications and the jailing of leaders like Debs for violation of the

Espionage Act by speaking against American involvement in the war (Salvatore, 2007, p. 294).

The party’s left-right divide came to a head after the Russian Revolution. While both supported the Bolsheviks, the sides of the party had different understandings for what the revolution meant for America and the American Socialist Party. “While the right greeted the upheaval as a step in the march towards socialism, carried out in uniquely Russian conditions, the left saw the birth of the first socialist state through revolution as corroboration for their theory that the parliamentary road to socialism was closed” (Heideman, 2017).

11

The left was criticized for being out of touch with the American proletariat for thinking that revolution in American was imminent. Referring to the left-wing, socialist James Oneal stated,

“’You have thought nothing out. You gave not analyzed the situation in the United States. You don’t know the American proletariat. You don’t know its psychology. You don’t know its history’ … Oneal argued that, rather than tottering, American capitalism concluded [World War

I] more powerful than before” (Salvatore, 2007, p. 320).

Struggles for power within the party between these ideologies would be its downfall. In 1919, facing election losses from the left, the right-controlled National Executive Committee started expelling entire state branches, eventually kicking out two thirds of party members (Heideman,

2017). By July 1919 the party had less than 40,000 members, a number that would continue to decrease (Goldfield, 2019). By 1921, these expelled members of the party formed the American

Communist Party, which become” the preeminent left group in the country” from the 1930s to the 1950s (Goldfield, 2019).

Debsian Socialism

When attempting to spread their message, American socialist leaders often ran up against the ideology of American individualism and the perception that socialism was “an alien concept … tainted by its European origins and perceived as contrary to American ideals” (Salvatore, 2007, p. 268).

12 One of the central tenets of Debs’ message as he traveled across the country for speaking tours and for his five different presidential campaigns from 1900-1920 was that socialism was not a solely European idea. “[Debs] found it impossible to entertain seriously any position that did not originate from within a broad American tradition” (Salvatore, 2007, p. 192). He believed, and frequently articulated, that it was aligned with the core values on which the United States was founded.

“Debs had discovered the essential dual aspect in his culture’s tradition: the American

Revolution was not a static event, embossed in marble and praised each July. It’s

essential meaning demanded a prophetic call to each succeeding generation to renew and

reinterpret that heritage. Debs did successfully combine that tradition with a pointed class

analysis. The vastness of the county’s resources meant that America, perhaps alone

among all nations, ‘should be free from the scourge of poverty and the blight of

ignorance” (Salvatore, 2007, p. 229).

The ideology of the American Socialist Party from 1901-1919, and its attempt to articulate socialism in distinctly American terms, is commonly referred to as “Debsian Socialism”

(Burwood, 2003, p. 257). It is conventionally considered distinct from the more” orthodox”

Marxism practiced by European socialists of the time for its emphasis and support of farmers and endorsement of Christianity (although in reality these elements were found in socialist movements across Europe (Burwood, 2003, p. 283)). This was particularly true of the movement in the Southwest, where the party grew out of the poor farmer’s Populist movement.

13 “The Socialists in these [Southwestern] states described socialism in concrete, practical

terms that made sense to poor people. They compromised with Marxian orthodoxy on the

land question and the nature of Christianity, but … they forged a program ‘concerned

with the real problems and issues’ of the regions farmers and workers and not with the

‘abstract’ debates that preoccupied party theorists” (Green, 1978, p. 384).

Did the American Socialist party fail? In their goal of transforming American into a socialist society, undoubtably, but as Nick Salvatore writes in his biography of Debs, “failure assumed the possibility of success, but that was never a serious prospect for the Debsian movement … in their struggle rather than solely in the outcome lies the greatest part of the movement’s continued relevance … in their courage, if not always their programs, these men and women gave to those who would follow a powerful example” (Salvatore, 2007, p. 271-272).

What is the role of the Press in Society?

The press’s perceived role within a society indicates what that society views as the locus of power. Is the press beholden to the people? The government? Journalistic ethics? Media that is created outside of the mainstream press is equally revealing; what are the characteristics of this media, and is it inherently “alternative?” In a capitalist society, what media operates in concert with the bourgeoise and what acts against its interests is often definitive of what is in and outside of the mainstream.

Social Responsibility of the Press

In 1956, Fred Siebert, Theodore Peterson and Wilbur Schramm published Four Theories of the

Press a book that has since maintained a longstanding reputation as "’the bible of comparative

14 media studies’" (Rantanen, 2017). The book outlines the authoritarian, libertarian, Soviet communist and social responsibility theories of the press. In the more than 60 years that have passed since its publication, the book has been criticized for offering an overly simplistic and very of-its-its time interpretation of communication theory (Merrill & Nerone, 2002, 135), particularly in its characterization of the Soviet press by Americans who did not speak or read

Russian (Rantanen, 2017). Its most enduring element, however, is Peterson’s development of the theory of social responsibility of the press; the only section that, according to critics of the book, does not “rely on an outdated canon of political philosophy” (Merrill & Nerone, 2002, 135).

The theory of social responsibility of the press posits that, while it should be free and independent, the press occupies a powerful position in society and as such has a responsibility to act in the public’s best interest and “to ensure appropriate delivery of information to audiences.”

If the press fails to “keep society’s interest as a top priority” then it should be held accountable by some “agency of the public” (Gupta, 2015), including “corporations, communities, consumers, practitioners and professional organizations” (Adams-Bloom & Cleary, 2009, p. 2).

The central idea of this theory is that that “freedom carries allied obligations. The press has an obligation to be responsible to the public” (Gupta, 2015). This idea led to the establishment of codes of ethics, Press Councils and anti-media monopoly laws in America and around the world.

Essentially, the press is free so long as it works in the public’s best interest, and if it fails to do this, it loses its right to that freedom. “The fundamental principles of the social responsibility theory could be summarized thus: ‘be self-regulated, practice responsibly, or the government will

15 control you’. In other words, freedom should be exercised with utmost responsibility to societal interest” (Uzuegbunam, 2013, p. 4).

Alternative Media

Following the social responsivity theory, what a publication considers in conflict with “society’s interests” (Gupta, 2015) depends heavily on that publication’s guiding ideology. Two media outlets can cover the same event or issue and come up with conflicting interpretations of its causes or solutions, depending on their own interests and base understandings of society. What media is considered “alternative” tends to depend on what ideas and populations are marginalized.

The socialist media of the 1910s is a necessary ancestor to the alternative media of the late

1900s (Armstrong, 198, p. 38); the term “alternative media” is often associated with the

American 1960s postwar mass culture critique (Dolber, 2016, p. 176). Alternative media from this era encompassed “’political and ‘resistance’ media,’” “’artistic and literary media,’” and other emerging cultural forms” (Dolber, 2016, p. 176). It was also characterized by its inclusion of marginalized people: “minorities, women, the poor, the working class, the politically unconventional,” as well as accepting work from journalists and non-journalists alike

(Armstrong, 1981, p. 17).

However, the post-1960s counterculture and its media comes out of a long tradition of American radical press, and the term “alternative media” is not exclusive to the era. Working with that understanding, alternative media can be defined “not as a historically situated set of institutions

16 and practices, but as a long-standing tendency that exists as a component of ‘actually existing democracy’” (Dolber, 2016, p. 176). Contrary to a mainstream publication, an alternative media source’s goal is to represent, organize and grow its specific audience, at the expense of reducing its commercial reach (Dolber, 2016, p. 177).

As a socialist publication in a capitalist world, Jacobin follows in this tradition of alternative press, interpreting current events with the viewpoint that capitalism has created the inequalities they observe. Although this viewpoint will not maximize their audience, it attracts a specific niche not connected by location, but ideology.

Community Journalism

Community journalism is often associated with local news and the “specific practice of gathering, packaging, and distributing news in predominantly small, distinct geographic markets” (Umali, 2012, p. 3), but a community does not need to be geographically based or small in size to have media by and for it, nor is all small and local media explicitly community journalism:

“A reporter on the lead TV news team in a sprawling city could be much more connected

to the community than a member of a three-person weekly newspaper operation in a town

of a few thousand people. It may be more difficult for journalists serving large, pluralistic

audiences to have strong connections to their communities, and it may be quite easy for

such connections to be established by a reporter serving a small, homogeneous audience,

17 but neither that difficulty nor that ease will alone dictate the strength of the connection”

(Umali, 2012, p. 15).

The defining element of community journalism, more than size or location, is the connection between journalists and their public, and the amount of “content classified as ‘community focused’” (Umali, 2012, p. 15).

Non geographically based community journalism existed long before the internet. Small Farmers

Journal, for example, “a quarterly magazine published in rural Oregon and reaching like-minded readers around the globe” has published since 1976 (Umali, 2012, p.15). However, “as the

Internet has greater power to bring geographically dispersed people together than any other medium” (Meyer & Daniels, 2011, p. 199) this definition of community has become more and more relevant for journalists to study and understand.

Community journalism is also characterized by heavy audience involvement, from story suggestions to feedback to contributions. “Community journalism has long been a forum for so- called ‘citizen journalism’ and interactive in a very real sense … online communication has expanded and improved that interactivity, for certain, but it did not create it” (Umali, 2012, p.16). This involvement can come at the expense of typical journalistic “norms of the profession at large” because community-connected publications will side with the norms and needs of its community over a convention of the industry. This is one place where community journalists and alternative media intersect, because as “alternative media activists are often participants in their own stories, they break from the professional journalistic norm of neutrality” (Dolber, 2016, p.

176).

18 One way that community journalism shows this elevation of community interests over journalistic principles is in its lack of a “firewall” between the business and editorial side of a publication traditional to journalism (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2014, p. 84). Part of this comes from viewing ads as another way to serve a publications community by supporting in-community businesses and providing readers with useful resources. “Some community editors consider advertising to be editorial copy and will accept only ads that are appropriate for their readers, preferring advertisements from businesses within the community” (Umali, 2012, p. 12). More practically, the typically small size of these publications due to their niche audiences means that staff members take on many roles. “If there is a ‘wall’ in many community media, it is a wall within the journalist herself” (Umali, 2012, p. 13).

Counterpublics

Not all community journalism is alternative media, but all alternative media is community journalism. For example, Field and Stream, a quarterly fishing and hunting publication, while serving a specific audience, or “specialized public” of “those with an interest in hunting and fishing, who in varying degrees participate in a (male) subculture of hunters and fishermen”(Warner, 2002, p. 84), would not be considered alternative, because “nothing in the mode of address or in the projected horizon of this subculture requires its participants to cease for a moment to think of themselves as members of the general public as well; indeed, they might well consider themselves its most representative members.” (Warner, 2002, p. 84).

Alternative media serves a “counterpublic,” an audience that is not simply segmented from, but subordinate to another culture. “The cultural horizon against which it marks itself off is not just a general or wider public, but a dominant one” (Warner, 2002, p. 86). Counterpublics by definition

19 have a limited audience and are likely to face “intense resistance” from the dominant culture

(Warner, 2002, p. 87) if circulation strays outside of that counterpublic. As journalism directed specifically at the socialist counteprublic, Jacobin exists as alternative community journalism.

Marxism and the Press

As a former journalist himself, Marx provided “important insights … for discussing the role of alternative media production, circulation, and reception” (Fuchs, 2010, p. 15). In The German

Ideology Marx’s writes that “the class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production” (Marx, 1845). In a capitalist society, commodity fetishism applies to mass media as well. The dominant media is used to enforce the idea that “the forms of domination of capitalism” are an unchangeable fact of life. “It is concealed that they have a historic character, can be transformed by social struggles, and are the result of societal development and social relations” (Fuchs, 2010, p. 31). Within capitalism, media can do anything but call attention to the structures of capitalism. It can even call for societal reforms as long as these reforms do not require economic restructuring.

Marx and Friedrich Engels established their own concept of the press’s social responsibility: they stipulated that, in its ideal form, the press exists to denounce the powerful, act as a watchdog for the public and work to undermine current modes of power. If the state is founded on and sustained by capitalism, then an ideal press would necessarily need to take an anticapitalism stance. This position would naturally be in opposition to the mainstream capitalist press and would therefore be labeled as “alternative media.” To Marx, a truly alternative press could only exist if it did not depend on capitalist practices to survive:

20 “In his characterization of the ‘true press’, Marx anticipated the idea that alternative

media should be noncommercial and nonprofit in order not to become corrupted by

capitalist pressures: ‘The primary freedom of the press lies in not being a trade’” (Fuchs,

2010, p. 32).

According to Marx, the press does have a social responsibility, but one explicitly directed at using its position to draw attention to capitalism as a specific and changeable feature of society.

With this in mind, Marx would likely see the press as having a dual responsibility to monitor capitalism and also educate workers on their own exploitation. A socialist press that doesn’t seek to reach nonsocialists does not accomplish this goal.

The History of the Socialist Press

Goals

The heyday of the American Socialist Party also saw the emergence of a “vigorous socialist press” (Salvatore, 2007, p. 220) which connected comrades across the country, covered labor news and party activity, shared organizing tactics and articulated socialist theory for current and potential party members (Maik, 1994, p. 6). In 1912, 323 American socialist periodicals were published; 232 English-language weeklies, 9 dailies and 10 monthly newspapers (Bekken, 1988, p. 26) (Maik, 1994, p. 6), with a combined circulation of 2 million (Streitmatter, 2001, p. 98).

This press was vital to the growth of the movement. A 1908 national survey of party members found that “52 percent of the rank and file discovered socialism through reading” (Graham,

1990, p. 7). Socialist publications had, generally, three interconnected goals: to connect and educate socialists across the country, to expose the abuses of capitalism and to create more

21 socialists. These goals are characterized by two very different publications, united by their shared socialist messages: Appeal to Reason and The Masses.

Connecting Socialists

In the “vast and unevenly populated land” of America, even more so than in Europe, “the socialist press was sometimes the only contact between socialists and their movement” (Shore,

1985, p.147). One publication above the rest had immense success in building a socialist mentality among working people across the country: Julius A. Wayland’s Appeal to Reason.

Called “the most popular radical publication of any kind” (Armstrong, 1981, p. 38), and “the largest and most durable institution that US socialism ever created” (Shore, 1985, p. 148), the

Appeal published weekly from 1895 to 1922 and at its peak in 1912, reached a circulation of

760,000 (Armstrong, 1981, p. 38) and employed more than 100 workers (Shore, 1985, p. 148).

Headquartered in Girard, Kansas, the Appeal was a newspaper for the working man. It focused on articulating the principles of Debsian socialism, offering a platform for citizens across the country to write in with questions, comments and anecdotes about life under capitalism and encouraging readers to organize politically. “Because the Appeal to Reason was the leading advocate of the positions of the Socialist Party, and because its membership was so far-flung, the

Appeal was conceived by many readers as the voice of US socialism” (Shore, 1985, p. 162).

The Appeal readers were not a passive audience. Readers across the country met weekly to discuss the most recent issues in “Appeal Study Clubs’ (Streitmatter, 2001, p. 106) and, in following with the tenets of community journalism, even contributed to issues (Umali, 2012, p.

22 16). “The paper’s unique ‘Tell the Appeal’ policy expanded the paper’s 100-person full time staff into a network of thousands of writers from around the country who worked as volunteer correspondents” (Streitmatter, 2001, p. 98). The paper regularly published work from readers and put out calls for their responses. One such call asked for readers to explain why they were voting socialist in the 1908 election. James O. Blythe from Cecil, Arkansas wrote in with a much- echoed sentiment: “I shall vote the Socialist ticket because I am a working man, and the Socialist party is the only political party representing the interests of labor” (Graham, 1990, p. 192). While many famous socialists of the time, from Jack London to Helen Keller, contributed articles to the

Appeal “such literati were far outnumbered by unknown writers” (Streitmatter, 2001, p. 107).

Described as “a sophisticated urban contemporary of the Appeal” (Armstrong, 1981, p. 38) The

Masses magazine, which ran out of Greenwich Village from 1911 to 1917, represented a different kind of American socialist: the urban intellectual. Under the direction of editor Max

Eastman, who took control in 1912, the magazine leaned heavily into the intersection of socialism, art and humor. It became known for its vibrant, artistic covers and editorial cartoons from artist Art Young. In 1914, the magazine reached a circulation of 15,000. “From Eastman’s first issue, the magazine served as a protest against what the very existence of classes did to all people, including intellectuals” (Maik, 1994, pp. xii-xiv). The Masses, while still an explicitly socialist publication that advocated for a revolution of the working class, was less singularly focused than the Appeal. It was a product of Greenwich village bohemia and was known to

“speak out on all issues and to center on none” (Maik, 1994, p. 119).

23 Besides keeping readers informed with news about the party, both in the US and abroad, these publications created shared culture and conversation through art, poetry and literature. Both The

Masses and the Appeal frequently published poetry and short stories, the content of which echoed the socialist themes of the papers. This ranged from explicitly political cartoons to more ambiguous poetry and fiction. Eastman and the artists at the Masses took their work very seriously. Eastman, an intellectual and poet himself, had numerous theories on the importance of art and humor. He viewed the Masses as a place for artists to create without the influence of commercialism. “For Eastman the Masses was not to be just another commercial periodical … commercial publications dominated the market and the process actually hindered creative efforts of contributors. Magazine publishing became big business and publishers adopted business objectives … such objectives, however, restricted creative expression and became the bane of both writers and artists” (Maik, 1994, p. 72).

Exposing Capitalism

Although their ultimate goal was different than that of the more moderate Progressive Movement reformers who dominated the movement (Sloan & Copeland, 2012, p. 199), socialist publications were imbued with the Muckraking spirit. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, arguably the most important muckraking novel of the era, was pitched to Sinclair by editor Fred Warren and first published in serialized format in the Appeal (Shore, 1985, p. 165). To Sinclair and the editors of the Appeal, The Jungle’s crossover success and even its part in leading to new food and drug regulations missed the novel’s greater point and ran into the same reform vs. revolution dichotomy that caused so much conflict within the party: Sinclair’s book on the horrors of working conditions under Capitalism became known specifically for its expose of the meat

24 packing industry – centering on the consumer rather than the worker. As Sinclair famously put it,

“I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach” (Sloan & Copeland, 2012, p. 205).

Under the leadership of Warren, who took over as managing editor for Wayland in 1904, the

Appeal’s writers dove into reporting, rather than simply “dissecting” news from the capitalist press (Shore, 1985, p. 164). The Appeal covered political corruption, strikes, child labor and more: anything that detailed the abuses of capitalism.

Due to its southwest origins, the Appeal paid special attention to exploitative tenant farming in the southwest and the south. In January 1915, John Kenneth Turner, a “socialist refugee of the establishment press,” (Graham, 1990, p. 159) spent 10 days in Oklahoma reporting on the conditions of poor farmers. Turner detailed the scant conditions of the laborers and did not mince words when describing the landowners, merchants and bankers who collected crops and profits from the farmers but kept them stuck in cycles of debt, calling them “Parasites of the First

Degree” (Graham, 1990, p. 160).

The Masses similarly employed a muckraking sensibility and reported on urban poverty, prison reform, race discrimination and feminism, including early support for Margaret Sanger and birth control. Under Eastman’s direction “art, fiction, poetry essays and editorials in the magazine took on the powers that be” (Maik, 1994, p. xiv). This was often done with intense and graphic realism. For example, in August 1913 a doctor wrote an article describing a prostitute with syphilis, going into great detail about “a great globose mass” on her face, “completely

25 obliterating her eye and so dilating her check that in profile she resembled a rodent’” (Maik,

1994, p. 61).

This attitude was also extended to reporting on strikes and labor conditions. Masses writers reported on-the-scene about everything from the Mexican peasant revolution to strikes and labor disputes across the country (Maik, 1994, p. 122). “On whatever front news was being made in

1913, people from The Masses were there. And within the pages of the magazine the reality of those events came alive” (Maik, 1994, p. 63). In 1913, Masses writer John Reed was arrested while reporting on the Patterson Silk Strike. His first-person account passionately defended the strikers:

“All the violence is the work of one side – the Mill owners. Their servants, the Police,

club unresisting men and women and ride down law abiding crowds on horseback. Their

paid mercenaries, the armed Detectives, shoot and kill innocent people. Their

newspapers, the Paterson Press and the Paterson Call publish incendiary and crime-

inciting appeals to mob violence against the strike leaders” (Maik, 1994, pp. 61-62).

Another aspect of exposing capitalism was simply putting wealth inequality in a language that everyday people could understand. The Appeal frequently used “revealing government data”

(Graham, 1990, p. 68) and other publicly available information to illustrate these concepts. An

August 1908 article tried to show the magnitude of Standard Oil’s $929 million in profits from the last 25 years by showing its relation to other more commonly understood sources of massive wealth:

26 “It may be a surprise to some of you simple minded folks when I tell you that one

corporation in the United States has taken more dollars in net profits in the 25 years and 6

months just ended than was paid to all the kings of Europe and all the presidents of the

North and South American nations! Just let that statement sink into your consciousness”

(Graham, 1990, p. 112).

Creating More Socialists

Part of socialist media’s goal was creating a place for prospective socialists to get their questions answered and misconceptions cleared up. In a media climate where publications across the country called socialists “incendiaries,” “assassins” and “a public menace” (Streitmatter, 2001, p.

105), this was a needed resource. The Appeal’s “Question Box” frequently answered requests to explain concepts like economic determinism (Graham, 1990, p. 79), the definition of capital

(Graham, 1990, p. 80) and class consciousness (Graham, 1990, p. 99). Its series “Things Under

Socialism” outlined the principles of a socialist society (Burwood, 2003, p. 268) and answered questions like, what will become of landlords under socialism? (Graham, 1990, p. 153). The paper also provided translations of Marx, Engels and other European socialists. “This engaging literature of discontent made the Appeal more than a newspaper; it was a school for Socialists”

(Green, 1978, p. 134).

The Appeal advocated for revolution through the polls. “The slogan ‘ballots not bullets’ dotted hundreds of the Appeal’s pages” (Streitmatter, 2001, p. 106). The paper was highly invested in elections and organizing and proved to be a more effective method of communication than the

Socialist Party’s national committee (Graham, 1990, p. 181). Articles like “Organize a Local:

27 How the Thing is Done You Should Read This Carefully” in a July 1903 issue detailed the steps and requirements for forming a Socialist local and challenged readers to get started:

“Now we fully believe that hundreds of locals can be formed in the next 30 days, and we

are going to keep a record in the columns of the Appeal of the results, so just as soon as

you have organized send us the particulars on a postal card. It won’t take but a moment

and we will smile all over the office every time a card comes in. Who will report first?”

(Graham, 1990, p. 182).

The Appeal also provided dispatches across the country in articles like “How We Move in

Alabama,” Pennsylvania’s Outlook” and “Propagating Socialism in the Dakotas” (Graham,

1990, pp. 182-184), which gave updates on electoral and organizational strategies and their varying successes. “As socialism won in municipal state races from Berkeley California to New

Yok City, articles did not merely trumpet the voices but described in painstaking detail the specific strategies that political leaders had employed – thereby providing guidelines for socialists hoping for similar success in their respective cities” (Streitmatter, 2001, p. 106).

Debs, who was an editor for the Appeal for five years, used the publication to campaign directly to readers. His article “Why You Should Vote for Socialism” from August 1912, proclaimed,

“For you, the workers of this Nation, there is but one issue in this campaign and that issue is socialism vs capitalism. Besides this issue all other questions pale into insignificance” (Graham,

1990, p. 203).

28 Volunteers from around the country known as the Appeal Army “a salesman Army of agitators and propogandists” sold subscriptions and handed out free copies in community spaces (Graham,

1990, p. 11). The Appeal Agitation League had success sending sample issues to teachers, union leaders and politicians (Streitmatter, 2001, p. 106). In 1913, the Appeal Army’s membership peaked at 80,000, more than half of the members of the Socialist Party itself. This easily mobilized grassroots support was “a phenomenon like nothing else in American publishing or radical history” (Graham, 1990, p. 11).

Staying Solvent

Running a socialist publication within a capitalist society is already starting with several disadvantages, from a skeptical public to the opposition of powerful forces in government and business who are inclined to clamp down on anti-capitalist sentiment. Along with social and political opposition, these publications faced an economic conundrum: how does a socialist publication make enough money to continue existing without becoming influenced by the capitalist system it criticizes? The answer was frequently not easily and not for long.

Advertising

In the early 1900s, publications were moving from being primarily funded by reader subscriptions to relying on advertising for the bulk of their revenue. “By the turn of the century, advertising provided 55 percent of the revenue of a successful magazine or newspaper” (Shore,

1985, p. 149). Radical publications not only tended to have smaller and more niche audiences, making them less appealing to advertisers at the time, they were also ideologically reluctant to

29 rely on advertising. “If a socialist paper was obliged to its advertisers, it could not be independent in its outlook and could easily be suspected by its readers” (Shore, 1985, p. 149).

Because of this, radical publications were faced with four main financial options (Shore, 1985, p.

148):

1. Keep costs at a minimum and depend on contributions from readers

2. Align with one party (ex. The Socialist Party) and take the operating budget out of

membership dues

3. Set up a co-op publishing venture and sell shares

4. Find a wealthy patron

The Appeal was one publication hesitant about selling ad space. During its 25 years of publishing the paper tried to operate with a combination of the funding sources listed above, “but found itself able to flourish only when it accepted the realities of the capitalist system within which it operated” (Shore, 1985, p. 149). The decision, “more or less unwillingly” to produce the paper through “’sound’ [capitalist] business practices” led to “alterations” in the Appeal’s emphasis and message (Shore, 1985, p. 149).

In 1898, after exhausting his personal resources and in the face of falling circulation, Wayland started running ads in the Appeal. He “resorted to the kind of advertising that a reform publication could carry without fear of taint” (Shore, 1985, p. 154): ads for other reform publications, socialist lectures and meetings. However, this wasn’t enough to bring circulation up and the next year the Appeal started running promotions to get their readers to sell subscriptions

30 by giving prizes to the “most aggressive subscription hustler” (Shore, 1985, p. 155). Readers who got the most people to sign up for the magazine could win everything from a sewing machine and a decorative vase to a 10-acre farm and a “complete brass band” to the city with the highest circulation (Shore, 1985, p. 155).

These methods proved successful, and as the paper grew, so did the number and variety of ads.

From 1898 to 1902 the paper’s ad space grew from less than one column of local and movement- related ads to almost full page of ads from across the country, selling everything from “rubber stamps to poultry feed” (Streitmatter, 2001, p.108). They even promoted quack medical cures and get-rich-quick schemes, like one ad that read: “’Why Work for Others? When you can become your own boss and become independent at home.’” This was, undoubtedly, “a strange message for a socialist newspaper” (Shore, 1985, p. 157). When criticized by a reader for his increasingly capitalist business practices, “Wayland replied that he was operating in a competitive system, that socialism had not yet come, and that he had to pay for the extortions of

500 trusts” (Shore, 1985, p. 162).

Under Eastman’s editorship, The Masses was similarly resistant to advertising. His first two issues, December 1912 and January 1913 were run without any ads, and Eastman appealed to readers in an Editorial Notice asking for donations and subscriptions so the magazine could make the monthly $600 needed to cover printing and other utilities without turning to advertising

(Maik, 1994, p. 182). This proved vastly insufficient; subscriptions sales netted only $20 of the proposed $600 (Maik, 1994, p. 58). It became clear that “to run a magazine like The Masses without [advertising] was tantamount to suicide” (Maik, 1994, p. 182) and in February 1913 the

31 magazine started running a few ads for other magazines and socialist publications. By July 1913, the Masses published more than a page of ads for typewriters, bookstores, the Rand School of

Science and more, as well as offering limited-time-only subscription promotion, like giving away a thermos called the Featherweight Thermonator with every year-long subscription (Eastman,

1913). In February 1915 the “Masses Book Store” was established: a system where the magazine would receive commission on sales of the books advertised within its pages (Maik, 1994, p.

182). By the end of 1916, ads made up 20 to 25% of the magazine’s content (Maik, 1994, p.

183).

Other Revenue Streams

The Masses never succeeded in making the $600 a month to break even, either through advertising or subscriber revenue. The struggle for funding, the responsibility mostly falling on

Eastman, was a monthly occurrence. Sympathetic members of Greenwich Village held banquets, debates and “Masses Balls,” but the Masses survived month-by-month generally by depending on one paradoxical source: members of the bourgeoise. “The periodical that attacked the wealthy existed only through constant support from the rich” (Maik, 1994, p. 184).

In his book about the magazine, managing editor Floyd Dell describes the viewpoint of the wealthy progressives who funded the publication: “’They did not approve of bloody murder –

Colorado, West Virginia – or the way the newspapers were hushing up these matters. They wanted some mucking done, and they were willing to pay to promote it’ (Maik, 1994, p. 184).

O.H.P. Belmont (the ex-wife of a Vanderbilt), Elizabeth Scripps, (sister of E.W. Scripps) and

32 millionaire Charles R. Crane were among the wealthy who contributed thousands of dollars to the magazine (Maik, 1994, p. 184).

The Appeal, under the direction of Warren, an idealistic radical who took over as editor in 1903 in part because of worker criticism of Wayland’s business practices, scaled back its ads, but did not cut them out completely. As editor, Warren was equally stumped by the “dilemma of where to get funds to operate a socialist newspaper in a capitalist world” (Shore, 1985, p. 164). The paper’s new emphasis on breaking news was in part an attempt by Warren to increase circulation without resorting to more ads. This worked for a time, particularly in the case of The Jungle, but encouraged the Appeal to lean into sensationalist “yellow journalism” that would work against the paper as anti-socialist sentiment grew (Shore, 1985, p. 165). “The experience of the Appeal to Reason suggests that adopting the techniques of the mainstream press might increase circulation but may eventually destroy the effectiveness of the radical media in the US” (Shore,

1985, p. 166).

Labor

As these socialist publications grew, their editors were faced with increasing contradictions and had to weigh the consequences of treating their own employees in ways that were inconsistent with a socialist worldview with the benefits of creating widely circulated socialist media. For a movement focused on putting power into the hands of workers, the treatment of the actual staff of these socialist publications gives insight into the struggles of implementing a socialist worldview in an existing capitalist system. In the case of The Masses, the magazine was never profitable enough to pay its writers, editors and artists. Until 1913, not even Eastman was

33 receiving a salary. This changed when Dell came on and demanded $25 a month for his role as managing editor (Maik, 1994, p. 99) Eastman took the same salary, and by 1915 he was making

$150 a month while the rest of the staff continued to receive nothing (Maik, 1994, p. 184).

The magazine was also plagued by conflict around its leadership structure. From Eastman’s start in 1912, The Masses was purported to be run as a “co-operative venture,” where all contributors were listed as editors (Maik, 1994, p. 64). On the second Thursday of each month the writers and artists would gather with Eastman and Dell to vote on what would go into the next issue (Maik,

1994, p. 103). These meetings were often lively and argumentative, with some contributors objecting to the idea of voting on the merits of art and poetry. While Eastman long maintained that the process was democratic, others complained that Eastman and Dell had turned the magazine into a “two-man dictatorship” (Maik, 1994, p. 111). “From the very beginning … it was apparent that Eastman saw himself not as one with the co-operative group, but rather apart from it, and in fact, above it (Maik, 1994, p. 107).

In March 1916 these tensions between the staff and Eastman and Dell culminated in a writer and artist’s strike. Artist and editor Johan Sloan demanded that Eastman and Dell start paying the artists for their work, give up their editorial control and create separate meetings for only artists and only writers to vote on their respective sections of the magazine. “In conclusion, he recommended that the positions of editor and managing editor be abolished” (Maik, 1994, p.

185). In short, Sloan wanted a more socialist organization.

34 Eastman offered to resign rather than give up editorial control. In his resignation statement he emphasized his power as the only employee with control of the publication’s capital: “’I am [the boss] because you have left it to me to raise the money for your magazine. In doing that you have given me the power to suspend your magazine whenever and I want to and whether you want it or not’ (“New Masses for Old” 297-98)” (Maik, 1994, p. 186). The strike ended with Eastman in his same role as editor, and very little changed with the structure of the magazine. Sloan left the publication as a result of the conflict, saying that the situation “’just proves that real democracy doesn’t work –-yet’ (Maik, 1994, p. 186).

The Appeal faced a similar conflict between leadership and workers that came to a head in

October 1903, when 46 of the paper’s 50 staff members striked and formed a union. This decision was in part due to Wayland’s attempt to fire two printers who were members of the socialist party, as well as over the worker’s lack of job security and low wages (many made only

$3 a week) (Shore, 1986, p. 47).

“Socialists themselves, the paper’s staff understood that they were not paid full value for

their labor, and they knew that control of the paper ultimately rested with Wayland.

Wayland was perfectly aware that his ownership of the Appeal was at odds with socialist

principles, but … he was unable to devise a collective ownership structure for the Appeal

that did not threaten his conception of the paper’s purpose and future direction” (Graham,

1990, p.7).

The strike lasted only one day and resulted in Wayland backing off from editorial decisions and bringing in Warren as editor.

35 Paradoxically, the paper’s commitment to its ideals was also the source of its lack of funding, and the lack of funding was the reason the paper had to resort to capitalist money saving measures like underpaying employees. “Limited in the amount of advertising that it could get, harassed by postal authorities, treated unfairly by the trusts that provided it with ink and paper, deliberately keeping the subscription price low to make the paper as widely available as possible, the Appeal was never in a financial position to offer much in wages and benefits as a capitalist employer” (Shore, 1986, p. 51).

Although the market forces have evolved in the last 100 years, the alternative and mainstream press of today are equally beholden to their own financial needs. Despite their staffs’ efforts to the contrary, financial interests and editorial work inevitably bleed into one another.

The Modern Press

Modern Market Pressures

In the 20th century, mainstream publications emphasized the idea of extreme separation, or a

“firewall” between the news and the business interests of a news company (Kovach and

Rosenstiel, 2014, p. 84). The wall was always more theoretical than practical, and in fact allowed for publications’ leadership to do exactly the thing the wall was supposed to protect against with less scrutiny. “Top news managers and top businessmen always conversed. The so-called wall was never anything more than a way to assure readers that journalists were independent, with the added benefit of avoiding contact at lower levels so that manager would not have to officiate the conflicts” (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2014, p. 91).

36 In practice the “firewall” simply led to business interests having more covert influence over the editorial department. An infamous example of such a situation is the 1999 Los Angeles Times -

Staples Center scandal, where the paper agreed to share $30,000 of revenue from the paper’s special edition magazine about the Staples Center with the arena in exchange for help selling ads and gave a Times ad executive advance viewing of magazine proofs (Kurtz, 1999). The newsroom was not informed of this decision, (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2014, p. 85) and David

Shaw, a Times media critic, responded with an outraged, 14-page article criticizing the decision and the paper’s executives. (Kurtz, 1999).

In contrast to social responsibility theory, John H. McManus argues that owners and their financial interests hold far more control over newsroom content than the needs of the public or even the intentions of journalists. In his study of local television newsrooms McManus found that journalism codes of ethics were used to emphasize the responsibility individual journalists had to adhere to standards of journalistic integrity and freedom from financial influences, which distracted from the reality that journalists were beholden to the newspaper’s owners and their decisions. “Given the hierarchical structure of conglomerate corporations, it is more likely that parent corporation will impose policies on their subsidiaries than the reverse.” (McManus, 1997, p. 8). A 1994 study found that America journalists felt less newsroom autonomy in the ‘90s than in the 30 years previous: “Four of five journalists laid the loss of autotomy to profit-driven management decisions as well as pressure from government, advertisers, or a hostile public”

(McManus, 1997, p. 12).

37 The rise of the internet and of online media in the past 20 years raised many questions about the future of journalism. In the ‘90s, the American national press earned on average nearly

80% of revenue from advertising (Benson & Hallin, 2007, p. 28). By the 2010s, the unpopularity of pop-up ads (Sirrah, 2019) and the decrease in advertising costs with the expansion of online adverting venues led to a massive decline in advertising revenue. From 2005 to 2013 American newspaper ad revenues fell more than 55% (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2014, p. 87).

Social media has caused even more problems for publications’ online advertising revenue.

Google and Facebook have grown to dominate the online advertising market, in what has been called an advertising “duopoly” with Amazon not far behind (Perrin, 2019). In 2017, Pew

Research Center reported that 67% (two-thirds) of Americans got some of their news through social media (Bialik & Matsa, 2017). The traffic and data gathered by these social media platforms has proven to be far more attractive to advertisers than the publications themselves.

“All that data means they [Google and Facebook] can target ads at you far more effectively than a newspaper website that doesn’t know much more than the fact you’re interested in news about

Kansas City” (Benton, 2014).

In its 2018 “Guide to Audience Revenue and Engagement” Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism stated that “the consumption data generated by those [social media] visitors is used by platforms to sell finely targeted advertising much more effectively than publishers can” (Hansen & Goligoski, 2018). Even digital-native publications like Buzzfeed, often touted as the kind of modern media that understood how to survive in the online journalism landscape, have suffered from the loss of digital-ad revenue to tech companies. In January 2019,

38 when Buzzfeed announced it would cut 15% of its staff, a decision that was “due in part to the company’s dependence on digital ad revenue and its reluctance to embrace paywalls or other forms of audience support” (Nelson, 2020, pg. 47) it seemed like the end of an era:

“Over the past decade, BuzzFeed represented the potential that the social web offered

more than perhaps any other media company. For a time, it seemed as though it was

possible for a publisher to game the algorithms and do serious, smart, funny work. This

restructuring is a grim reminder that even media companies optimized to work on the

tech giants’ platforms have been unmoored by how much power they wield” (Knibbs,

2019).

How are Publications Making Money?

If advertising, so long the backbone of journalism, is no longer the life force it once was, what other options are available to publications? Four main alternatives have emerged: subscriptions, donations, foundation support and native advertising (Nelson, 2020, pg. 45).

Subscriptions and Donations

In 2011, the New York Times made the (at the time) controversial decision to start charging subscriptions for its online content. By 2013, the Times was earning more than half of its revenue from subscriptions (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2014, pp. 90-91). This model has proven sustainable.

In its 2019 annual report, the New York Times Company stated that “subscription and advertising revenues provided about 60% and 29%, respectively, of total revenues” (The New

York Times Company, 2020, pg. 36). In its 2020 Digital News Report, Oxford’s Reuter’s

Institute for the Study of Journalism found that 20% of Americans are paying for online news,

39 with 4% saying they donate to a news organization, (the Guardian and NPR were the top two recipients)(Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2021).

The pivot to paywalls and subscription-only models has led to a change in the perceived relationship between publications and their audiences. This has led to a revival of the “idealist” school of thought: the idea that “the core of the business of media is that journalism must deliver value to the audience—rather than the audience is something to be leveraged to advertisers”

(Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2014, p. 91).

The Tow Center distinguishes between donations, subscriptions and memberships as ways of gaining audience revenue, with membership meaning “a two-way relationship between readers and a publication that often involves monetary exchange (and, in many cases, non-monetary contributions such as time and expertise)” (Hansen & Goligoski, 2018). Examples of this exchange include asking for member opinions on what to cover through private Facebook groups and asking for feedback on pilot podcast episodes (Hansen & Goligoski, 2018). The guide encourages publications with the adequate time, capacity, and audience loyalty to look into establishing a membership model, although it notes that “the two-way engagement between publication and audience required to sustain a successful membership strategy can initially feel uncomfortable for reporters, editors, developers, and designers who have worked in traditional legacy institutions that maintain a clear boundary between newsroom staff and audience members” (Hansen & Goligoski, 2018). In this case community journalism has been ahead of the curve, as it “has long been a forum for so-called ‘citizen journalism’ and interactive in a very real sense” (Reader 16). Media that is created by and for a counterpublic will inherently act in ways

40 that blur the lines between membership and subscription, due to their smaller, niche audience and active participation in their communities (Dolber, 2016, p. 176). Although “traditional legacy intuitions” (Hansen & Goligoski, 2018) may balk at to transition to a membership model, being more intimately connected to their audience can help publications better fulfill their obligation to social responsibility, as their readers become their main source of revenue.

Foundation Support

Reporting on the 2019 Buzzfeed layoffs, Katie Knibbs makes the claim that “at this time, the best hope new media companies have, just like legacy outlets, is benevolent billionaire backers not fixated on maximum growth. Tethering a media outlet to the whims of the ultrawealthy is, of course, not ideal—but then again … yoking most of the media to the profit models demanded by investors and shareholders can be even worse” (Knibbs, 2019). But what are the consequences of publications accepting financial support from foundations and wealthy donors?

The past decade has seen a rise in nonprofit news organizations, newsrooms which, “for the most part … reject legacy media’s reliance on advertising. Instead, they rely on donations from individuals, foundations, and wealthy benefactors” (Ferrucci & Nelson, 2019, p. 46). When it was founded in 2009 the Institute for Nonprofit News (then called the Instigative News Network) was comprised of 27 nonpartisan, nonprofit news organizations. Now, in 2021, the organization is made up of more than 300 North American newsrooms (Institute for Nonprofit News, 2021).

From 2009 to 2016, groups like the Knight Foundation and the Macarthur Foundation (Scott et al., 2019, p. 2040) gave more than $1 billion to US journalism projects (Ferrucci & Nelson,

41 2019, p. 47), many of this going to nonprofit news organizations, 60% of which receive at least half of their budget from foundations (Scott et al., 2019, p. 2034).

While many of these foundations had explicit emphasis on the autonomy of the newsrooms they funded (Scott et al., p. 2041), they still influenced the newsrooms, not necessarily in content, but by changing the newsroom’s boundaries and perceived roles. “Foundation funding shapes what we understand journalism to be … we are concerned that such important decisions about journalism – a vital institution to democracy – are being made by a small number of generally un-transparent organizations, controlled by powerful individuals, which are rarely scrutinized or held accountable by any larger or democratic body” (Scott et al., 2019, p. 2035).

Newsrooms have to allocate time and resources towards finding and applying for grants and then towards budgeting and reporting back to the foundation on their progress (Scott et al., 2019, p.

2044). They are also often expected to write about their work for in-industry publications, or present at journalism conferences for the purpose of promoting the foundation (Ferrucci &

Nelson, 2019, p. 51). Journalists, specifically in nonprofit newsrooms with small staffs, were now expected to take on tasks normally done by accountants and marketers (Scott et al., 2019, p.

2046). Desire to show “impact” of stories to justify funding to these foundations, as well as the restrictions of staff and resources that most nonprofit news organizations have, has led to an emphasis on “distractive” long form reporting over breaking news: “keeping up with the news agenda of mainstream media was perceived to be significantly more resource intensive than producing off-agenda items which ‘added value’ to mainstream coverage” (Scott et al., 2019, pp.

2047-8).

42 A “firewall” philosophy towards foundations has yet to be established (Ferrucci & Nelson, 2019, p. 53) meaning that foundations tie funding to expectations that it will be used in certain ways, towards certain purposes. This includes using new “cool” technology like VR that the newsroom would not have been able to afford on its own and that its journalists themselves aren’t particularly interested in, and emphasizing audience engagement over journalist’s judgement, even when the journalists themselves don’t agree with this philosophy (Ferrucci & Nelson, 2019, pp. 50-52):

“In the previous, advertising-driven era, no journalist at a reputable organization would

be asked to write a story to appease a specific advertiser. In the world of foundation-

funded journalism, however, journalists are asked to embrace certain tools and

approaches to their work because doing will help that newsroom secure or maintain their

foundation funding” (Ferrucci & Nelson, 2019, pp. 50-52).

Native Advertising

Native advertising, “defined as the practice by which a marketer borrows from the credibility of a content publisher by presenting paid content with a format and location that matches the publisher’s original content” (Wojdynski & Golan, 2016, p. 1403) has been adopted in some form by virtually every major publication, from all-digital “New Media” like Buzzfeed to legacy papers like The New York Times (Serazio, 2020, p. 679). In 2019 eMarket predicted that advertisers would spend almost $44 billion on native advertising that year, although a majority of this was predicted to go towards Facebook and other social media companies (Perrin, 2019).

43 Content-marketing “newsrooms” at major companies and in-house native advertising studios at publications are run very similarly to traditional newsrooms, with writers assigned to beats, editing, fact checking, and daily writers’ meetings with an eye for topical pegs (Serazio, 2020, p.

684). Content produced for American publications, however, does tend to be clearly disclosed as advertising, either with a disclaimer like “sponsored content” or “in association with,” a clear label from the ad department, and/ or a disclaimer “that news and editorial staff had no involvement in the piece” (Conill, 2016, p. 911).

Journalists have expressed concerns that the rise of native advertising further blurs the proverbial

“firewall” (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2014) or “separation of church and state” dividing advertisers and business concerns from journalists (Sirrah, 2019). On the business side, employees who worked as salespeople for these publications have found their roles shifting from selling ad space to selling “stories” and “ideas” (Sirrah, 2019). A new role has emerged: product marketer, someone who works in between the newsroom and the business side, connecting advertisers with potential article tie-ins. Ashley Neglia, The New York Times’ former director of product marketing and ad innovation, described her position: “My job is to work very closely with the newsroom as they come up with new ideas, and for me to determine what might be interesting to an advertiser. What might be sellable or sponsorable?” (Sirrah, 2019). Departments like product marketing allow publications “to skirt the implication that news staff work directly with brands to craft commercial content” (Sirrah, 2019).

Journalist and ethicists have also voiced fears that native advertising created in the style of articles, often published under the same banner as news, has the effect of shifting the reader’s perception of what journalism is and should be:

44 “Why – the brand journalism premise holds and online persuasion architecture affords –

would a reader know or care about the difference in its origins, especially in the absence

of adequate media literacy? Both [native ads and conventual ads] seek to shape reality

and condition perception, but articles concocted by brands do so more subtly than the

straightforward, interruption advertising that underpinned the media industries for much

of the past century” (Serazio, 2020, p. 694).

The current media landscape is marked by the decline in advertising revenue. While advertisers and financial interests have always had influence over newsrooms despite codes of ethics

(McManus, 1997) or the “firewall” philosophy (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2014), this new landscape and the restructuring it has caused has created situations which force newsrooms to be much more upfront about their commitments, either to their audience (Hansen & Goligoski, 2018), benefactory foundations, (Ferrucci & Nelson, 2019) or advertisers (Serazio, 2020).

American Socialism Today

This unsteady media landscape of the 2010s was the same environment that fostered the rise of a new wave of American socialist media. As it was in the 1910s, this media accompanied (and in some cases predated) the growing awareness of American socialism that came with the high- profile presidential campaigns of self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders.

Electoral Gains

A burgeoning new American socialist movement had been brewing since the 2008 Great

Recession and 2011’s Occupy Wall Street movement (Cassidy, 2019), but first became part of the national conversation when Sanders came in second behind Hillary Clinton in the 2016

45 Democratic Primaries. Sanders won 13.2 million, or 43%, of the aggregate popular vote, to

Clinton’s 55% (Silver, 2020). The case can be made that “no single candidate has done more to reshape the Democratic party in the past four years than Sanders” (Gambino, 2021). His campaign popularized policies in 2016 like Medicare for All and a response to the climate crisis that have since become mainstream Democrat talking points:

“Many of the issues he has promoted for years — most notably a Medicare-for-all

national health care plan and a $15 an hour minimum wage — have shifted from the

party's fringe to its mainstream, and are now seen as effective litmus tests for presidential

candidates” (Detrow, 2019).

In 2018 Democratic Socialists Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib were elected to the

U.S. House of Representatives in highly publicized victories (Dreier, 2020), and Sanders’

February 2019 announcement that he would be running in the 2020 election was met with excitement and anticipation among the American Left. NPR reported at the time that “Sanders enters the race as a top contender who, along with former Vice President Joe Biden, tops most early polls, far outpacing other Democratic candidates in support and name identification”

(Dreier, 2020).

Despite starting with promising momentum in the 2020 primaries, Sanders fell behind after the

South Carolina Democratic Primary and suspended his campaign in April 2020. He earned 1,097 delegates to President Joe Biden’s 2,695 (Panetta, 2020). The campaign was notable for its grassroots support. “Sanders was the only major candidate who didn’t benefit from a big-money super PAC,” he raised almost $180 million, with more than 54% coming from small individual donors (Monnay& Hassan, 2020).

46 Although Sanders lost, the 2020 election saw significant gains for socialists in government.

Thirty-three members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were elected to public office for the first time, bringing the national total to 101; the most self-identified socialists in

American government since the 1910s (Dreier, 2020). In the House, Representatives Ocasio-

Cortez and Talib were joined by DSA-backed Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman (Dreier, 2020).

Democratic Socialists of America

The DSA, the US’s largest socialist organization, was founded in 1982 through a merger between the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American

Movement (NAM) (Schwartz, 2017). Distinct from the old Socialist Party, the DSA is a 501©4 nonprofit, not a political party (Morash, 2020). This theoretically gives the organization “the potential to influence one of the two major political parties instead of competing with it”

(Morash, 2020).

In 2012 the DSA had 6,500 members, “10 or so moderately strong locals and a similar number of campus groups” (Schwartz, 2017). The DSA backed Sanders in 2016, but not without acknowledging that his policies were not wholly aligned with socialist principles:

“DSA made clear that Bernie’s New Deal or social democratic program did not fulfill the

socialist aim of establishing worker and social ownership of the economy. But in the

context of 40 years of oligarchic rule, Sanders’ program proved sufficiently radical and

inspiring. (Sanders made clear that he opposed state ownership of corporations, but no

mainstream reporter was astute enough to know that the particular socialist tradition that

47 Sanders came out of favored worker, not state ownership, of most firms)” (Schwartz,

2017).

During the 2016 campaign DSA membership rose from 6,500 to 8,500. Donald Trump’s unexpected victory led to a massive surge in new members, particularly among young people.

From November 9, 2016, to July 1, 2017, over 13,000 people, mostly between the ages of 18 and

35, joined the DSA (Schwartz, 2017). This growth continued throughout the Trump presidency, with membership at 45,000 in July 2018 (Morash, 2020). The coronavirus pandemic has similarly brought in record numbers: “an estimated 10,000 people have joined since March

[2020] bringing the group’s total membership to roughly 66,000” (Godfrey, 2020). As of March

2021, the DSA website claims more than 92,000 members and lists 236 chapters in all 50 states

(Democratic Socialists of America, 2021). Voting members are required to pay dues, which range from $20 a year for students/ members of the Young DSA to the $175 “Sustainer” option

(Democratic Socialists of America, 2021). “In the first half of 2018, dues made up 77 percent of the money DSA raised” (Morash, 2020).

Ideologically, the DSA falls more on the reform than revolution side of the original Socialist

Party, in part simply due to the fact that international developments of the last century have made an all-out America socialist revolution a much less likely outcome than it may have seemed in the 1910s:

“At the root of our socialism is a profound commitment to democracy, as means and end.

As we are unlikely to see an immediate end to capitalism tomorrow, DSA fights for

reforms today that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of

working people …We are activists committed to democracy as not simply one of our

48 political values but our means of restructuring society” (Democratic Socialists of

America, 2021).

Intro to Jacobin

Jacobin, called “the most successful American ideological magazine to launch in the past decade” (Baird, 2019), is a quarterly magazine and website based in Brooklyn (Jacobin, 2021).

The magazine was founded in 2010, with its first print issue published winter 2011 (Baird 2019).

Creator, editor and publisher Bhaskar Sunkara was an undergraduate at George Washington

University at the time (Baird, 2019). Although only 21, Sunkara was already an involved socialist who had been a member of the DSA since high school (Matthews, 2016). Sunkara was soon joined by Rhode Island School of Design student and current creative director Remeike

Forbes, whose bright and playful cover designs became the magazines trademark (Baird, 2019).

The publication became known for “its frank and often surprisingly sensible articles on the theory and practice of socialism” (Baird, 2019) and gained popularity, particularly with the rise in DSA membership and public awareness of socialism, during the 2016 election and after

(Influence Watch, 2021).

As of March 2021, Jacobin’s reports 60,000 magazine subscribers and “a web audience of over

3,000,000 a month” (Jacobin, 2021). Its website proclaims: “Jacobin is a leading voice of the

American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture” (Jacobin,

2021). The publication has a listed staff of more than 40 (Jacobin, 2021) and in addition to the website and magazine, has a book imprint; Catalyst an academic journal; Jacobin Italia, an

Italian “franchise;” a series of podcasts (Baird, 2019) and a YouTube channel.

49 Methods

The purpose of this thesis is to place Jacobin into the greater historical context of American socialist media. This means conducting an editorial, institutional study of the magazine (Berger

2019, p. 243) analyzing the publications content, business model and community building efforts over its 10 years of existence. By purchasing an online subscription, I have access to digital

PDFs of all 40 past issues as well as all the content on Jacobin’s website. For a qualitative, constructed sample I conducted a textual analysis of the first and most recent magazines, along with 10 issues divided evenly between the 10 years and quarterly releases:

• Issue 1: Winter 2011 (first issue)

• Issue 6: Spring 2012

• Issue 11-12: Fall 2013 (Summer-Fall Issues combined)

• Issue 13: Winter 2014

• Issue 17: Spring 2015

• Issue 22: Summer 2016

• Issue 27: Fall 2017

• Issue 28: Winter 2018

• Issue 33: Spring 2019

• Issue 38: Summer 2020

• Issue 40: Winter 2021 (most recent issue)

50 I examined how these Jacobin issues met (and didn’t meet) the aforementioned goals of past socialist publications: to connect and educate socialists across the country, to expose the abuses of capitalism and to create more socialists.

I noted any times a purpose or goal for the magazine was stated and what kind of calls to action are presented to readers. Are certain electoral actions or political movements endorsed? I also looked for the balance between reported stories, synthesis of current events and theory and the tone with which these topics are presented. For example, is it written at a basic reading level, or is a higher reading level and more counterpublic-specific language used? I also examined how humor and art play into the magazine’s tone and style, from the cover art to the design and writing.

I also examined how the magazine presents the aims and goal of socialism. Is it something that can be achieved through electoral means? Is it presented through a global or national lens? Who is presented as an authority on the subject? This is historical research, dealing “with the past and with changes over time” (Berger 2019, p. 249). As such, I am conscious of the tendency within historical research to weave a reductionist narrative out of a desire to find patterns where they may not be (Berger, 2019, p. 244). To mitigate this, I’ve looked at the questions laid out by

Arthur Berger in Media and Communication Research Methods (Berger, 2019, pp. 251-252).

I’ve narrowed my focus, located reliable primary and secondary sources and have learned about the political, economic and cultural climate of the country at the time these issues were being published (2011-2021) to more fully understand Jacobin’s greater meaning and impact (Berger,

2019, p. 252).

51 To analyze the magazine’s business model within this sample I noted how the magazine’s financial situation is presented to readers as well as what is advertised and how. I also looked for calls for reader donations or support or indications of outside backers, from foundations grants to benefactors. To analyze the magazines community building efforts, besides looking at what is endorsed or criticized within the magazine, I looked at how the magazine promotes itself, when and how readers are directly addressed, and what opportunities for further reading, meeting and activism are introduced. To analyze what the magazine chooses to advertise and how, as I read through each issue, I noted what was being advertised and the amount of space taken up by each ad. I also looked at secondary sources like articles about the magazine from other publications or interviews with Sunkara, to look at how the magazine presents itself and how it has been received by the mainstream and its own community.

As I competed this textual analysis, I employed deep reading strategies. Deep reading is “an approach where the reader uses higher-order cognitive skills such as the ability to analyze, synthesize, solve problems, and think meta-cognitively in order to negotiate meanings with the author and to construct new meaning from the text” (Reis, n.d.). For my purposes, this means looking through the predetermined issues multiple times: the first round is simply to get a surface level understanding of the content of each issue: how things are organized, what topics are introduced, what is that issue’s goal or central topic. As I read, I highlighted information that was relevant to the points I outlined and in my notes I “starred” articles or sections that explicitly mentioned one of the points above. For my second round I looked closely at the starred information and saw where commonalties or patterns started to appear; these formed the structure and organization of my findings section. My last round of analysis was a close

52 reading of the starred sections, where I applied the topics laid out in my literature review to the content.

Findings

In its 10 years of existence, Jacobin has been part of a rapidly changing American Socialist movement. The magazine itself has grown from a tiny publication with a realistic understanding of its own lack of influence and of the influence of socialism on American society as a whole, to a glossy, well-organized and aesthetically pleasing product with a sense of responsibility – if not to lead the charge on the left, then to document its wins and losses and strategize for future gains.

Much of the magazine’s format has evolved, its tone has matured and its goals have expanded with its audience, but the magazine’s view of socialism and its criticism of modern American society has remained largely the same, as has its view of the collaborative relationship between the magazine and its readers.

Sunkara’s first letter from the editor reflects the general (and reasonable) disillusionment felt by much of the American Left at the beginning of the 2010s:

“Publications with tiny audiences have a knack for mighty pronouncements. A

grandiloquent opening, some platitudes about ‘resurrecting intellectual discourse’

followed by issue after issue of the same old shit” (Sunkara, 2011, p.1).

He critiques the current political media of the time for falling into two categories: overly intellectual, hard to read academic pieces “utterly disconnected from reality” and “unchallenging rags that treat their readers like imbeciles” (Sunkara, 2011, p.1). With Jacobin Sunkara hoped to

53 bridge this gap, creating a leftist publication that was both approachable and substantive

(Sunkara, 2011, p. 1). In this first letter he emphasized the magazine’s editorial freedom, stating that the publication is not a member of any political organization or singular ideology, but that its contributors are “loosely bound by common values and sentiments:

“-As proponents of modernity and the unfulfilled project of the Enlightenment.

-As asserters of the libertarian quality of the socialist ideal.

-As internationalists and epicureans” (Sunkara, 2011, p.1).

Unlike the Appeal, the early Jacobin did not have dreams of revolution, electoral or otherwise.

There was a general cynicism within the pages about the possibility of organizing a politically powerful leftist base. In an article advocating for a shorter work week, Chris Maisano states that

“clearly, the prospects of building a movement around such a program currently appear to be bleak. But so are the prospects of building a movement around a more traditional Left program that continues to operate under the assumptions of mid-20th century social democracy”

(Maisano, 2011, p. 6).

In a 2018 fundraising letter, Sunkara looked back at his intentions for Jacobin in those early issues:

“I couldn’t have imagined socialism penetrating this far into the political mainstream.

The plan was to have the magazine keep the flame of socialism alive in dark times – to

win converts to it, help make it more relevant, but ultimately pass it off to a future

generation. Eight years later, ‘socialism in our time’ better captures our demand”

(Sunkara, 2018).

54

Content

Format

The first issue of Jacobin was as a series of unrelated and unorganized reviews, Q&As and essays, united by a shared socialist bent. Stories were divided bluntly into “Editorials,” “Essays and Interviews” and “Culture and Art.” The issues that followed saw experimentation with sections and formats, from the introduction of themed Special Topic sections (“The European

Left,” 2012, pp. 31-48) to a labor themed issue where all pieces were divided between the sections “How Labor Lost” and “How Labor Can Win” (“Rank and File,” 2016).

Finally, after six years of tinkering, the magazines settled into a format. Since 2017, Jacobin issues have been laid out in essentially the same way: each issue has a general theme – from healthcare, to housing, to the Soviet Union, – four feature stories and the same six departments:

Front Matters, Means of Deduction, Reading Materiel, Cultural Capital, The Tumbrel and

Leftovers.

Front Matters

As the name suggests, Front Matters is dedicated to keeping tabs on the left. The first section,

Party Lines, replaces an editor’s note with an essay by a contributing editor or staff writer that tends to establish the general themes of that issue and works as a preview of the content that will be echoed in the following articles. The Party Lines for Spring 2019, the issue themed around housing, laying out the topics that will be elaborated on in future articles, like universal rent

55 control (“Universal Rent Control Now”) and the need for a national plan to solve the housing crisis (“We Need a Green New Deal for Housing”):

“Yet the current political moment also creates an opportunity to recognize housing as a

basic right, rather than a marketable commodity or a complex policy problem. Along

with public education and universal health care, a massive program of high-quality, well-

funded, and widely available social housing needs to be part of the Left’s agenda in the

coming years. We need to take universal programs like rent control seriously, and support

the creation of nonmarket mechanisms like limited-equity cooperatives and community

land trusts” (Lewis & Narefsky, 2019, p. 9).

Letters from readers are published in The Soapbox, where “our inbox … is open to your effusive praise or criticism” (“Letters,” 2021, p. 14) and everything from criticism to jokes to complements found on social media relating to Jacobin are self-deprecatingly republished under the headline “The Internet Speaks.” Although far less utilized than the frequent letters published in the Appeal, this section similarly gives insight into the magazine’s reach and the ways that readers have been influenced by its socialist message. Akasha Atherton in Port Angeles,

Washington provides this insight:

“For three years in a row I’ve sat through the same annual workplace ethics and

compliance training video, produced for the company profiting from my labor. One

section features an employee reprimanded for sleeping at work prior to departing for their

second job, all while being assured that management understands their situation. During

this year’s training, my first group discussion question was, “Why isn’t their position

with the company valued enough to be paid a living wage?” Unsurprisingly, management

56 met me with a deep sigh and, “now is not the time.” Now is certainly the time to renew

my first year’s subscription to Jacobin” (Atherton, 2019, p. 10).

By starting each issue off with Front Matters, Jacobin’s quickly establishes its editorial position: it is a magazine for and by socialists, with interest in gaining power and influence over American culture and politics.

Means of Deduction

This section features full color infographics and charts, a reprieve in a magazine where many articles feature small font and full pages of text. Jacobin started integrating graphs with some of its articles in 2015, signaling an evolution to a more aesthetically pleasing format as well as, potentially, a move towards outreach beyond those already within the socialist counterpublic, as graphs can be more approachable and easily shared (especially on social media) than a dense article. A graph from the Spring 2015 Issue, part of an article on how to organize as worked against exploitive technology, depicts the widening gap between hourly compensation and economic productivity in the US from 1948 to 2013 (Heideman, 2015, p.15). This is an often- cited trend among socialists, and a graph like this, showing the “143 percentage point difference”

(Heideman, 2015, p.15) between economic productivity and compensation in 2013 could be applied to a number of conversations, not just the one strategy presented in this specific article.

Reading Materiel

This section features book reviews, often of socialist books, but also of works across the political spectrum, From a highly critical look at President Obama’s most recent memoir, A Promised

57 Land (Bessner, 2021, p. 41-52) to a review of Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology (Jager &

Leusder, 2020, pp. 41-45). Contrary to a typical literary or film review, book reviews in Jacobin often serve as more of an educational summary in themselves, rather than a preview or recommendation of the books covered. In his first issue as book editor Scott McLemee outlines his philosophy on this section by quoting Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci: “’Individually nobody can follow all the literature published on a group of topics or even on a single topic....

Just as those in power have a secretariat or a press office which keeps them informed daily or from time to time about everything published they need to know about, so a similar service will be provided for its public by a periodical’” (McLemee, 2013, p. 48).

McLemee’s next lines indicate something of the Jacobin staff’s hope in 2013 for the magazine’s future: “[Gramsci] could assume that the journal was part of a movement supporting it, yes, but also supported by it, financially and in the dozen other ways that follow from common solidarity.

Contributors, like readers, would be drawn from that movement, and would be adding to it; helping it grow, both in numbers and in depth” (McLemee, 2013, p. 48).

Cultural Capital

Fulfilling Sunkara’s commitment to be a magazine staffed with “epicureans” that can both critique the culture of capitalism and comment in its aesthetics (Sunkara, 2011, p.1), Jacobin includes reviews and writing on culture and media, including music, movies, video games and sports. Although the content is always viewed through a leftist lens, the topics range from mainstream pop culture to alternative media. A piece in the Spring 2019 Issue describes how

West Berlin’s squatter culture created the countercultural German rock band Ton Steine

58 Scherben (Balhorn, 2019, pp. 76-77), the Fall 2013 issue includes a review of Gore Verbinski’s

The Lone Ranger (Jones, 2013, pp. 61-67), and Winter 2021 features a piece on the commodification of the cyberpunk aesthetic represented by the new video game, Cyberpunk

2077 (Zickgraf, 2021, pp. 114-117).

The Tumbrel

Named after the carts that were infamous for taking prisoners to their execution during the

French Revolution, this section features dispatches on the left’s opponents and threats, from the

Democratic Party: “Everyone Hates The Democrats” (Guastella, 2021, pp. 119-125) to the far right: “Fascism’s Face Lift” (Burtenshaw, 2017, pp.123-124) to Big Tech: “Homeless People

Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House” (Day, 2019, pp.104-105) and the bourgeoise in general: “Rich People Kill Themselves” (Day, 2018, pp. 94-97). These articles range from mocking bourgeoise’s excess and the contradictions of capitalism to sober strategic analysis.

Leftovers

This is essentially a catch-all for anything that doesn’t fit neatly into the other sections, including lighter, humorous pieces. At present, this includes a satirical horoscope with advice such as

“don’t take that new job, don’t go on that date—both are traps. Postpone important financial decisions indefinitely. If you work in the arts, athletics, or with the elderly, avoid the water – it’s likely to be your doom” (“Your Quarterly Horoscope,” 2021, p.157).

The magazine always concludes with Means and Ends, a section written by Sunkara or another editor that is addressed directly to readers and subscribers. It typically consists of an update on

59 the magazine’s financials and upcoming projects, but sometimes the Means and Ends takes on a more inspirational role. In the aftermath of Sander’s 2020 presidential campaign, at the end of an issue called “After Bernie” editor Seth Ackerman gave an impassioned address on the future of the left with subheadings titled “Why We Lost” and “A Possible Future” proclaiming that while

“[Bernie’s critics] seem convinced that they dodged a bullet. They haven’t – the bullet is still on its way” (Ackerman, 2020, pp.134-138). This kind of rhetoric shows a level of responsibility to the left that would have seemed out of place in the early magazine when there was hardly a movement to speak of. Sunkara only hoped to live up to the “modest goals” laid out in his first editor’s note and to “avoid saying anything outright barbarous” (Sunkara, 2011, p.1).

Purpose

Looking back at the magazine’s early days 10 years after its founding, Maisano, now a contributing editor, reflects on the magazine’s intentions:

“[Jacobin] was always more of a straightforward, left-wing agitprop campaign, a

constant fire hose of material telling you the world can be better if we organize and fight.

It sought not to emulate Partisan Review, but to resuscitate the spirit of a publication like

The Masses for those organizing after the historic defeat of left and workers’ movements.

Like The Masses, we saw ourselves as inextricably linked to the working-class struggles

and movements for social liberation in our time. Above all, we sought to create an

intellectual and institutional pole of attraction that could help to cohere the swirling

discontents of the 2010s into a lasting organizational expression” (Maisano, 2020)

60 While the magazine is written in approachable language with a humorous tone, is it not a socialist primer. There is an expectation that certain topics will be understood without needing much explanation: terms like Marxism, neoliberalism, class consciousness, and dialectical materialism are used frequently without definition or introduction. In an early editor’s note

Sunkara joked that Jacobin was “an intellectual journal, albeit one with the pretense of being a magazine” (Sunkara, 2012, p. 2).

Articles in Jacobin fall within three, often intersecting categories: education, strategy and critique. All these categories begin with the assumption that the reader is already a socialist, or at least positively interested in socialism, and has more than a surface level understanding of

American and (to a lesser extent) international politics.

Giving each issue a distinct and specific theme can serve as a crash course on the commonly held socialist views round that topic: how things are at present, why they are that way and what can be done. This creates readers who can not only advocate for a specific policy or action but defend that policy against the current system, counter proposals and common justifications for why it can’t be done.

For example, the Winter 2018 healthcare issue, “The Health of Nations” focused on the push for

Medicare for All. Reading the issue cover to cover, a reader could gain an understanding of the history and implantation of nationalized medicine around the world, from the founding of the

British National Health Service (Burtenshaw, 2018, pp. 19-28) to the success of Cuban medical care and education (“Better Red Than Dead.” 2018, pp. 34-42), learn about the challenges a push

61 for single payer healthcare could face in Congress and how to combat them with well-developed policy (Himmelstein & Woolhandler, 2018, pp. 51-57), and even be able to combat common criticism of Medicare for All, like the “how are we going to pay for it?” argument (Himmelstein

& Woolhandler 2018, pp. 52-53) or the idea that private pharmaceutical companies drive drug innovation (Gaffney, 2018, pp. 58-66).

In terms of the three goals of socialist publications in the 20th century, Jacobin is far more focused on fostering conversation and connections between the already existing socialist counterpublic than speaking directly to socialism’s critics or converting those with little interest in the topic. It is a work of community journalism – for socialists, by socialists. That community has simply grown exponentially in the past 10 years.

In 2012 Jacobin started taking its community building initiatives beyond its pages. In a likely homage to the Appeal Army’s “Study Clubs” (Streitmatter, 2001, p. 106) Jacobin started its reading groups program, Jacobin Clubs, with the slogan “Don’t Study Collective Action Alone”

(Maisano, 2020). According to Jacobin’s website:

“Jacobin reading groups bring leftists together to engage with socialist ideas in a lively,

open, and non-doctrinaire environment … Groups unite organizers, workers, student

activists, and those new to the Left. Every group is open to people thinking about

socialist politics for the first time, as well as more seasoned friends” (Jacobin, 2021).

Today Jacobin meeting groups are organized in 16 US cities, Canada and 12 other countries

(Jacobin, 2021). These groups “provided a halfway house between passive, primarily intellectual

62 engagement with the socialist project and full-fledged organizational commitment” (Masiano,

2020). “You couldn’t join Jacobin. But by providing support and resources for readers who wanted to meet up with like-minded people, the magazine did the important work of normalizing the idea of regular, face-to-face political engagement and discussion in a world where this was increasingly rare” (Maisano, 2020).

Jacobin editors don’t claim that reading or subscribing to the magazine is direct socialist action.

In a 2020 interview with The Wire Sunkara went as far as to say that while media like podcasts and magazines are a natural part of a developing subculture, he doesn’t “think they can either help much or hurt much … I’m sure some people are continuing to be attracted to DSA through Jacobin or a podcast … but in general, we shouldn’t overstate how much good they can do, or on the other end, overstate how much harm they can do” (Purushothaman, 2020).

Jacobin does, however, emphasize the importance of education when paired with organizing.

In a Means and Ends called “Are you Reading Propaganda Right Now?” columnist Liza

Featherstone lays out the magazine’s view of its own role within the socialist movement.

Featherstone doesn’t refute “accusations” that Jacobin is socialist propaganda but does emphasize the publication’s fact checking process and use of empirical data to create “a balance of persuasion and truth” (Featherstone, 2020). Featherstone also cites Lenin’s definition and view of propaganda: “It’s clear that his ideal propaganda is an informative, well-reasoned argument, drawing on expertise and information that the working class might not already have.

That’s what we try to do at Jacobin” (Featherstone, 2020).

63 Featherstone is openly critical of mainstream media outlets like CNBC and the Atlantic, calling them “an almost constant onslaught of brayingly ill-informed and bellicose opinion disguised as news” guided by a “murderous and mendacious” agenda. Only Jacobin gets “dismissed” as propaganda because its agenda is one outside of the political mainstream (Featherstone, 2020). In accordance with Marx’s view of the media, these mainstream publications reinforce “the forms of domination of capitalism” (Fuchs, 2010, p. 31) and as such do not receive the same scrutiny as alternative media. She also explains why many leftist publications have long described themselves as “independent media” and why Jacobin rejects this label:

“For the last few decades, with weak movements and not many left politicians, left media

has described itself as ‘independent’; the implication was not only that we weren’t owned

by any major corporations, but also that we weren’t responsible to anyone. The latter has

never been the case for Jacobin, which has always been part of a democratic socialist

movement.” (Featherstone, 2020).

As such, Jacobin serves the function of priming readers for action. As Featherstone writes,

“Lenin saw that while propaganda was not enough to mobilize people by itself, it was crucial to movement building, in concert with face-to-face organizing” (Featherstone, 2020). By creating community focused medica for the socialist counterpublic and reasons to gather with and meet other similarly minded people, readers are much more likely to act when presented with opportunities, like joining the DSA, protesting and canvasing. Jacobin’s reading group info page proclaims that “Our more established groups are now also going to demonstrations and picket lines together” (Jacobin, 2021).

64 The effects of education-plus-organizing were clear after 2016, when “in the wake of Bernie

Sanders’s unexpected success, and the shock of Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, reading group regulars swelled the ranks of organizations like DSA and helped to remake them for a new era” (Maisano, 2020).

“Would they have done so if Jacobin hadn’t already been plowing fields and sowing

seeds for years?” Maisano asks. “Some undoubtedly would have. But if not for Jacobin

— and, more important, the 2016 Sanders campaign — many probably would have either

joined the #Resistance or withdrawn from political engagement in despair” (Maisano,

2020).

Sometimes this reasoning feels a bit circular: is the DSA growing because of Jacobin or is

Jacobin growing because of the DSA? If the Sanders campaign as not existed, would these people have even been interested in politics in the first place? But the magazine’s goal is clear; it has been (slightly derogatorily) called “the closest thing to a flagship publication of the DSA left” (Creegan, 2018), and although Sunkara maintains that the magazine has no “editorial line” but instead an “editorial box” in which ideas within said box can be debated (Baird, 2019),

Jacobin and the DSA are soundly committed to the idea that, “socialism in our time” (Sunkara,

2018) will be achieved democratically.

Business Model

The publications rapid growth over the last 10 years presents a difficulty in analyzing the magazine’s finances – what is reported in 2018, for example, is likely to be an inaccurate representation of the magazine today, since Jacobin’s subscriptions have risen from 37,940 in

65 October 2018 (Issue 31) to 67,367 as of January 2021 (Issue 40). However, what information is available about Jacobin’s finances shows that they have been able to do what many socialist publications before had not: pay writers, although this has not been without controversy.

Labor

The start of Jacobin should sound familiar: a tiny staff with unpaid contributors who viewed the magazine as an interesting and new ideological work, not a source of revenue (Featherstone,

September 2020). Sunkara “did essentially all the production, design, business, and publicity work” (Baird, 2019) for the magazine’s first three issues and wasn’t able to pay print writers until 2013. It wasn’t until 2015 that Sunkara started taking a salary for himself: $36,000 a year

(Baird, 2019). In 2016 Sunkara told Vox that all full-time workers make between $35,000 and

$39,000 with a flexible healthcare plan: “‘If you’re a professional socialist, it’s not that bad’”

(Matthews, 2016). As of 2019, “the gap between the lowest and highest salaries at the magazine is less than ten thousand dollars” (Baird, 2019).

In 2016 Jacobin’s seven full-time staffers voted unanimously to unionize (James, 2016) joining the NewsGuild of New York, which also represents the staff of publications like Buzzfeed News,

Fortune Magazine, Mashable and The Nation (News Guild of New York ,n.d.). Unlike the

Appeal’s decision to unionize, this move was not instigated by exploitive labor practices.

Associate editor (later managing editor) Micah Uetrich called the magazine “’a very egalitarian place’” (James, 2016). This decision was made out of a desire to get ahead of any issues and model the publication’s commitment to worker’s rights.

66 “’This past year Jacobin’s ideas have reached more people than ever before,’ said

assistant editor Elizabeth Mahony. ‘It’s important for people to see that those ideas are

reflected in our everyday practices at the magazine, and that we’re in solidarity with a

wider labor movement that is increasingly made up of unconventional workplaces’”

(James, 2016).

While the magazine’s full-time staff, in 2016 and now, have not aired any major grievances against management, Jacobin has faced outside criticism for its freelancer rates. In 2014, when the magazine only had one full time employee, creative director Reimke Forbes, contributors made $50 for digital pieces and $200 for print. Interns were paid $15 an hour and “the people who help with shipping and other ‘grunt work’ get around $16 an hour. Says Sunkara: ‘There’s not a place on the masthead for that work, and also, that’s the hidden labor, so we try to pay for that first’” (O’Donvan, 2014).

In 2018, despite the magazine’s massive growth in the time elapsed, these freelance rates remained essentially the same, something that did not go unnoticed by other voices on the left.

Payday Report, a crowdfunded labor and union news outlet, criticized Jacobin for paying such low rates while at the same time purchasing The Tribune, a long-running British leftist publication that Jacobin acquired after it was put “in dire straits” (Baird, 2019) by its former owner’s mismanagement.

“Sunkara, has been accused of building his empire by underpaying his writers with many

making on average $50-$100 a story. For years, Sunkara and his allies have claimed that

the socialist publication lacked the resources to pay its writers. However, the purchase of

67 the 80-year-old legacy British publication … raised questions about what exactly Sunkara

did with the money he saved by underpaying his writers at the Brooklyn-based Jacobin

Magazine” (Elk, 2018).

The purchase of The Tribune brought more labor controversy when three former Tribune employees wrote open letters to Sunkara alleging that they had been misled after being shut out of the publication’s relaunch. “Workers say that Sunkara promised that if workers took a settlement of only 70% of the back wages that they were owed [by the previous management] that he would give them future work after taking over the publication. However, Sunkara in a statement to Payday confirmed that he would not bring the staffers back” (Elk, 2018).

Mike Parker, one of the three former Tribune workers, detailed his frustration with Sunkarta:

“I am not naïve. I understand that when a new proprietor takes over a publication, even a

left-wing one, he/she may want a new direction and fresh blood. If you had said that from

the beginning and not mislead us, you might have retained my support. What I object to,

and what makes me very angry, is the dishonesty of the process in which you indulged

and the disrespect you have shown myself and my colleagues … So often on the left,

principles of comradeship, solidarity, honesty and so on make fine rhetoric but are

shamelessly abandoned when they become inconvenient” (Parker et al., 2018).

Sunkara asserts “that the plan all along was to invite the writers to contribute to the second and third issues,” (Baird, 2019) and that the situation was a miscommunication. ‘’They thought, and had reason to think, that they would be incorporated into the relaunch at a closer level . . . But the

68 thing is, they have different models and different visions than some of the new staff’” (Baird,

2019).

In May 2018, after the Tribune relaunch controversy, Jacobin announced it has negotiated a freelancer agreement with the National Writers Union, establishing minimum rates, a 50% “kill fee” in the case that an assigned project is rejected, and a requirement that writers will be paid within 30 days of a story’s completion (NWU, 2018). This move was praised by the NWU, particularly Vice President David Hill, who has himself worked as Jacobin freelancer: “’I was proud to have a byline in Jacobin before this agreement,’ said David Hill … ‘I’ll be even prouder to write for them now. This agreement helps set an example for how publications, no matter how small or large, can and should respect their freelance writers’” (Hill, 2018).

The agreement states that “work appearing in the print magazine will be paid at a minimum of

$125. Work appearing on the website will be paid at a minimum of $50. Writers are free to negotiate higher rates than this, but Jacobin is not allowed to pay writers any less” (NWU, 2018).

As of 2019, the Columbia Journalism Review reports that Jacobin freelancer rates start at $75 and “while the editors have heard complaints that Jacobin doesn’t pay enough for its freelance pieces … Sunkara figures the magazine spent more than $100,000 on freelancers over the past year” (Baird, 2019).

Revenue

In 2018, the most recent year available on Propublica’s nonprofit explorer, Jacobin’s revenue came almost exclusively from “program services” (subscriptions, magazine and book sales and

69 ad sales) (Sechler Morgan, 2020) and contributions. In 2018 the magazine made 92% of its total revenue from program services: $1,409,214, and $107,301 from contributions (ProPublica, n.d.).

After four years of reporting “a six digit-surplus” (Baird, 2019), in 2018, after seeing subscriptions stagnate, the magazine came up at a $20,000 loss (ProPublica, n.d.).

The Winter 2018 Means and Ends, “Our Annual Physical: Everything’s fine but our wallet” reflected this situation with an appeal for donations: “Our finances are even more stretched than usual. We can only maintain our present deficit for two more years. We’re working to expand our subscriber base and stay sustainable, but we need your help to bridge the difference” (“Our

Annual Physical,” 2018, p. 110). Three issues later Sunkara continued the push for support, not shying away from drawing direct lines between the success of the Left and the continuation of

Jacobin. In the Issue 31 Means and Ends, titled “A Make or Break Year” he writes that “when

Jacobin was founded, socialism was in retreat, even on the Left. As plainspoken as possible, we conveyed to thousands the endearing power of the old ideas (Marx), the old agent (workers), and the old goal (socialism) … We have big plans for 2019, and we know that Jacobin still has an important role to play in the struggles to come” (Sunkara, 2018, p. 120).

The next page, “What You Can do to Help” lists the magazine’s current and upcoming projects, including more podcasts and Catalyst, the scholarly journal, and encourages readers to ask their public or university libraries to get institutional subscriptions, gift their friends with a subscription and “consider making a regular monthly donation at jacobinmag.com/donate/”

(Sunkara, 2018, p.121). Sunkara also puts out a public call for grants or institutional partnerships: “If you’re affiliated with an institution that might be able to partner with us on a

70 project or offer general operating support, please drop us a line at [email protected]”

(Sunkara, 2018, p. 121). Evidently the Sanders campaign brought new eyes to Jacobin and new enthusiasm to its readers because web views and subscriptions have climbed since 2019 and an address with similar urgency hasn’t been put out since.

Subscriptions and Donations

Jacobin operates under a time-sensitive paywall: the magazine’s current issue is always available for free online, not as a PDF, but in an article-by-article format, along with the entirety of the publication’s online-only articles. The rest of the magazine’s archives, including PDFs of all 40 issues, are available by subscription only.

In 2011, Jacobin listed only one subscription price: $19.95 per year (Sunkara, 2011 p. 1). By

2017, with a circulation of almost 37,000, the magazine settled on its current seven subscription options: “$29 US (print), $39 Canada (print), $59 international (print), $19 (digital), Solidarity

$59, Institutions $69, Lifetime $295” (“Subscription Price,” 2017, p. 7).

Even in 2011, when many print publications looked wearily at the rise of online news, Jacobin published its print content simultaneously online (Baird, 2019). Its first issue also advertised web exclusives like “Polemics, cultural commentary, and assorted pictures of puppies wearing birthday hats” (Sunkara, 2011, p. 35). Sunkara viewed the internet as a new frontier for radical media, which has been historically shut out of media like television and radio. “Under capitalism, the Internet will never be able to live up to its egalitarian promise, but it allows leftists to compete on more even terrain” (Sunkara, 2015, p. 88).

71 Jacobin’s ideological commitment leads it to make decisions based on more than just profit.

Sunkara explains how they fulfill this commitment in a 2015 call for donors:

“Last December, Jacobin’s website registered 1.5 million views, a respectable number

even by mainstream standards … Though traditionalist publications like Harper’s say

“fuck the Internet,” Jacobin has a political duty to reach as many people as possible with

free and accessible content — yes, ‘content.’ In 2015, that means publishing 750 articles

online, in addition to our quarterly magazine and book series. It means understanding, if

not embracing, modern web publishing and figuring out how that mysterious Facebook

algorithm works” (Sunkara, 2015, p. 88).

This puts Jacobin in the position of convincing readers to pay for a magazine they can read online for free: “Maybe you subscribe to Jacobin because you like having the print magazines around or enjoy the layout in .pdf form, or maybe you buy issues just out of political commitment, but your decision to pay for what we release freely online is the only reason the magazine survives” (Sunkara, 2015, p. 88).

In order for Jacobin to exist with its present model, it needs a subscriber base that shares a feeling of community and sense of responsibly for the publication. For inspiration, Sunkara looked to Appeal to Reason, which he commended for “not only follow[ing] developments in bourgeois publishing, but pioneer[ing] its own innovations … Radical media has not come close since (Sunkara, 2015 p. 88).”

Since its first issue Jacobin has provided an email address for letters and “unsolicited essays, reviews, and creative contributions” (Sunkara, 2011, p. 35), and starting in 2015 the magazine

72 started publishing its print and web circulation in every issue, a move taken directly from the

Appeal:

“Appeal to Reason and others used to broadcast their circulation numbers in issues. It

helped get readers invested in the fates of the publications they relied on. These listings

weren’t always triumphant bulletins, some included distraught appeals from editors and

tales of financial woes, even threats of imminent collapse. We’ll try to cause you less

stress, but starting this issue Jacobin will follow in the same tradition … The numbers

may dip embarrassingly in the future, but we want you to see our project for what it is

now and what it, with your help, could become” (Sunkara 2015, p. 88).

The quarterly Means and Ends address also fulfills this goal of helping readers not only feel informed and vital to the magazine’s success, but a part of the greater socialist counterpublic.

Before this was established Jacobin ran regular ads within the magazine asking for subscriptions and donations. In fact, before 2015 most of the ad space in each issue was taken up by Jacobin’s own content. One ad that ran regularly for the magazine’s first three years reflects its early, self- deprecating tone:

“Donate:

1. We don’t understand libel law.

2. Our lawyers don’t either.

3. We’d like to trade in PBR for champagne.

4. We won’t send you a tote bag.

5. We will send you a holiday card.

6. And possibly some baked goods.

73 7. We’re an independent leftist magazine.

8. In color.

9. With pretty pictures.

10. This is an excellent way to launder money” (“Donate,” 2013, p. 51)

This tone was present in Jacobin’s first official fundraising call in 2014, although the magazine was already getting a sense of its growing scope:

“Fundraising appeals are hard to write. Stealing lessons from MoveOn.org and the

savviest of American liberals, the original headline of this post was going to be: “Time is

running out to defend Obamacare from Birther Tea Party Republicans! … This issue,

we’re printing 3,000 more copies than we did in April. The quality hasn’t suffered for it,

but improved — Jacobin remains a confident and open platform for the socialist left, with

a combination of intellectual sophistication, political commitment, and cultural literacy

that, warts and all, will stand as a model for others in the future. (Sunkara, 2014, p.75).

Advertising

Advertising has never been a substantial part of the magazine’s revenue. In 2014, Jacobin made about $10,000 a year from advertising sales (O’Donvan, 2014) or about .5% of the magazine’s program services revenue for that year (ProPublica, n.d.). Although the number of ads per issue has increased since then, they still make up only a small fraction of the magazine; Out of the 160 pages in the Winter 2021 issue, only 8 2/3 were ads. The Summer 2020 issue featured 6 2/3 pages of ads out of 138 pages.

74 What ads are featured exemplifies the view that, within community journalism, advertising can serve as an extension of community building (Umali, 2012, p.12). The most common type of advertising featured is for relevant literature from university and independent publishing houses.

Fernwood Publishing, University of Chicago’s Pluto Press and Verso Books, Jacobin’s partner for their book series, are all frequently featured. The books recommended are almost exclusively leftist nonfiction, and frequently correlate with that issues’ theme. For the Soviet Union issue

Haymarket Books advertised three books about the Russian Revolution (including Leon

Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution, translated by The Masses editor Eastman) with the topical headline, “Make October Great Again” (“Haymarket Books,” 2017, pp. 46-47). For the housing issue, Polity Books advertised three titles related to urban planning and gentrification and included a Jacobin-exclusive promo code for 20% off (“Polity,” 2019, p. 11).

The next most frequent ads are for educational opportunities, from speaking series to graduate programs. Since 2018 City University of New York has put out frequent full-page ads for its

“M.A. in Liberal Studies” program (“The Graduate Center,” 2021, p.126). Ads for fellow leftist publications like New Left Review and Current Affairs have appeared in recent issues. All these ads emphasize the idea that Jacobin is one voice within the socialist counterpublic, and that active members should seek out opportunities for further education and discussion.

Discussion

In September 2020, in honor of Jacobin’s 10th anniversary, many of the publication’s longtime contributors penned retrospectives on the magazine’s unlikely success. They all noted that

Jacobin’s rise both reflected and was indebted to growth of American socialism since the early

2010s:

75 “At the time, [in 2010] there was hardly any socialist media in the United States … most

‘independent’ publications were a bore and a chore to read, as well as, in design terms, an

eyesore. But in a way, this wasn’t entirely their fault. Their unwelcoming appearance and

tone reflected the discouraging lost cause that was the Left … In order to be relevant, find

an audience, and, most of all, find anything to cover other than how terrible everything is,

dissident media needs vibrant dissident movements. Without such movements, media,

however well produced or well written, has little to no impact on the world beyond

‘raising awareness’” (Featherstone, September 2020).

Although Sunkara had the benefit of embedding his magazine into a counterpublic that would soon experience rapid growth, Jacobin’s staff don’t write up the publication’s success solely to fortunate timing. “Plenty of other socialist ventures have failed during these years or remained confined to a tiny corner of the Left online arena. Jacobin’s success is very much an achievement, however much it has been buoyed by the growing interest in socialism” (Chibber

2020).

What is the secret to Jacobin’s longevity? In many ways, it has been the magazine’s commitment to its own ideals. Jacobin never attempted to create a “firewall” between its editorial and financial interests. The magazine’s minimal staff and Sunkara’s dual position as publisher and editor-in-chief necessitated early on that a “separation of church and state” (Sirrah, 2019) wouldn’t have been possible. Furthermore, as an alternative media outlet directed at a politically oriented counterpublic, this separation isn’t expected. As a publication by and for socialists,

Jacobin is upfront about its ideological influences. Appealing to readers for subscriptions on

76 political basis, and advertising leftist literature and education opportunities align with the communities’ goals and interests. As long as Jacobin continues to be upfront about its financial situation and its compensation of contributors, the lack of separation between its finances and editorial interest is unlikely to draw criticism from other members of the counterpublic. Jacobin has become such a part of American socialist culture that subscribing or donating to Jacobin is as much a part of participating in the socialist community as joining the DSA or canvasing for

Bernie Sanders. Like any work of community journalism, the norms of the community override journalistic standards, like “accusations” from the mainstream media of being propaganda

(Featherstone, 2020)

Following the principles of community journalism and seeking to fund a magazine in a manner that aligns with socialist ideals inadvertently led Jacobin to become an early adapter of the subscription-forward model that has overtaken both mainstream and alternative journalism in the last 10 years. By not depending on advertising, a few wealthy donors or foundation grants,

Jacobin was primed to face the market pressures of today’s media climate while representing a counterpublic that by its very nature chafes with the American media mainstream. Depending on thousands of individual revue streams ensures Jacobin a degree of stability not tied to journalism norms, mass market appeal or the whims of a benefactor. As long as the magazine continues to put out an aesthetically pleasing product that analyses culture and politics through a socialist lens, Jacobin has reason to believe its community will stand behind them.

Although Jacobin has found a degree of financial stability unavailable to the socialist publications of the 1910s, one thing that unites Jacobin, Appeal to Reason and The Masses is that their fates are inseparably intertwined with that of the American socialist base:

77 “Jacobin’s relevance and interest depends completely on this socialist movement. As it

thrives, so will we. If it dies, this magazine probably will, too. But at this writing, we’re

optimistic that the movement will continue. We’ll keep trying to contribute as best we

can” (Featherstone, September 2020).

In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, it remains to be seen if the “bullet” of

American socialism “is still on its way” (Ackerman, 2020, p. 134-138) or if, as Sunkara once wondered, it has been “an Indian summer” for socialism (Sunkara, 2017, p. 10). Regardless,

Jacobin has established a position within this counterpublic that exemplifies the success community-oriented publications can find by committing to their message and readers.

78 References

Introduction

Armstrong, D. (1981). A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America. South End Press.

Baird, R. (2019, January 2). The ABCs of Jacobin. Columbia Journalism Review.

https://www.cjr.org/special_report/the-abcs-of-jacobin-socialist-magazine.php

Cohen, M. (n.d.). Cartoons for Socialism. Cartooning Capitalism. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from http://www.cartooningcapitalism.com/cartoons-for-socialism

Graham, J. (1990). Yours for the Revolution: The Appeal to Reason, 1895–1922 (First Edition).

University of Nebraska Press.

Wayland, J. (1906, December 29). Appeal to Reason, p. 1 Retrieved April 23, 2021 from

https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason

Literature Review

Adams-Bloom, T., & Cleary, J. (2009). Staking a Claim for Social Responsibility: An Argument

for the Dual Responsibility Model. JMM: The International Journal on Media

Management, 11(1), 1–8.

Alexander, J. (2015). The major ideologies of liberalism, socialism and conservatism. Political

Studies, 63(5), 979–994.

Armstrong, D. (1981). A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America. South End Press.

79 Baird, R. (2019, January 2). The ABCs of Jacobin. Columbia Journalism Review.

https://www.cjr.org/special_report/the-abcs-of-jacobin-socialist-magazine.php

Ball, T., & Dagger, R. (2021, March 1). Socialism | Definition, History, Types, Examples, &

Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/socialism

Bekken, J. (1988). ‘No Weapon So Powerful’: Working-Class Newspapers in the United States.

Journal of Communication Inquiry, 12(2), 104–119

Benson, R., & Hallin, D. C. (2007). How States, Markets and Globalization Shape the News.

European Journal of Communication, 22(1), 27–48.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323107073746

Benton, J. (2014, September 15). Like it or not, native advertising is squarely inside the big news

tent. Nieman Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2014/09/like-it-or-not-native-advertising-

is-squarely-inside-the-big-news-tent/

Bialik, K., & Matsa, K. E. (2017, October 4). Key trends in social and digital news media. Pew

Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/04/key-trends-in-

social-and-digital-news-media/

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2016, November 15). Surplus value. Encyclopedia

Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/surplus-value

Burwood, S. (2003). Debsian Socialism Through a Transnational Lens. The Journal of the

Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2(3), 253–282.

https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537781400000414

80 Cassidy, J. (2019, June 18). Why Socialism Is Back. The New Yorker.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-socialism-is-back

Conill, R.F. (2016). Camouflaging Church as State. Journalism Studies, 17(7), 904–914.

Cozzarelli, T. (2020, June 16). Class Reductionism Is Real, and It’s Coming from the Jacobin

Wing of the DSA. Left Voice. https://www.leftvoice.org/class-reductionism-is-real-and-

its-coming-from-the-jacobin-wing-of-the-dsa

Davenport, T. (May 2012) Organization Leaflet No. 5 Proclamation and War Program.

Retrieved April 23, 2021 from

https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1917/0500-spa-

proclamationandwarprogram.pdf

Democratic Socialists of America. (2021a, April 15). About Us. https://www.dsausa.org/about-

us/

Democratic Socialists of America. (2021, April 15). Chapters. https://www.dsausa.org/chapters/

Detrow, S. (2019, February 19). Bernie Sanders Launches 2020 Presidential Campaign, No

Longer An Underdog. NPR.

https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2019/02/19/676923000/ber

nie-sanders-enters-2020-presidential-campaign-no-longer-an-underdog

Dolber, B. (2016). Commodifying Alternative Media Audiences: A Historical Case Study of the

Jewish Daily Forward. Communication, Culture & Critique, 9(2), 175–192.

81 Dreier, P. (2020, December 11). The Number Of Democratic Socialists In The House Will Soon

Double. But The Movement Scored Its Biggest Victories Down Ballot. Talking Points

Memo. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/number-democratic-socialists-congress-

soon-double-down-ballot-movement-scored-biggest-victories

Eastman, M. (Ed.). (1913, July). The Masses, 4(10).

https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/masses/index.htm

Ferrucci, P., & Nelson, J. L. (2019). The New Advertisers: How Foundation Funding Impacts

Journalism. Media and Communication, 7(4), 45–55.

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i4.2251

Fuchs, C. (2010). Grounding Critical Communication Studies: An Inquiry into the

Communication Theory of Karl Marx. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 34(1), 15–41.

Gambino, L. (2021, January 21). Bernie Sanders, who reshaped US politics, ends 2020

presidential run. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-

news/2020/apr/08/bernie-sanders-ends-2020-presidential-race

Godfrey, E. (2020, May 14). The DSA Is Growing Fast During the Coronavirus Pandemic. The

Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/dsa-growing-during-

coronavirus/611599/

Goldfield, M. (2019, December 10). 100 Years of American Communism. Jacobin.

https://jacobinmag.com/2019/12/communist-party-usa-history

82 Graham, J. (1990). Yours for the Revolution: The Appeal to Reason, 1895–1922 (First Edition).

University of Nebraska Press.

Green, J. R. (1978). Grass-Roots Socialism: Radical Movements in the Southwest, 1895--1943.

LSU Press.

Gupta, M. (2015, August 28). Emerging issues in Social Responsibility theory of Media in

today’s era. Scholarticles. https://scholarticles.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/mg1/

Hansen, E., & Goligoski, E. (2018, February 8). Guide to audience revenue and engagement.

Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/guide-to-

audience-revenue-and-engagement.php#culture-change

Heideman, P. (2017, February 20). The Rise and Fall of the Socialist Party of America. Jacobin.

https://jacobinmag.com/2017/02/rise-and-fall-socialist-party-of-america

Hudis, P. (2018). Marx’s Concept of Socialism. The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx, 756–772.

https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190695545.013.50

Hudson, I., & Hudson, M. (2003). Removing the Veil? Commodity Fetishism, Fair Trade, and the

Environment. Organization & Environment, 16(4), 413-430.

Influence Watch. (2021). Jacobin. https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/jacobin/

Institute for Nonprofit News. (2021). About INN. https://inn.org/about/

Jacobin. (2021). About Us. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from https://jacobinmag.com/about

83 Knibbs, K. (2019, January 26). BuzzFeed Layoffs Are a Bad Sign for Online News. The Ringer.

https://www.theringer.com/tech/2019/1/26/18198621/buzzfeed-news-layoffs-digital-

media-economy

Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2014). The Elements of Journalism, Revised and Updated 3rd

Edition: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect (3rd ed.). Three

Rivers Press.

Kurtz, H. (1999, December 21). `Ethical Iceberg’ Seen In L.A. Times Scandal Probe.

Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/12/21/ethical-

iceberg-seen-in-la-times-scandal-probe/3715e6ea-2523-494e-b001-66919381ec7c/

Maik, T. A. (1994). Masses Magazine 1911–17 (Modern American History) (1st ed.). Garland

Publishing.

Marx, K. (1845). The German Ideology. Marxists Internet Archive.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01b.htm

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (2021). The Communist Manifesto (REVISION 46A7EC6 ed.) [E-book].

Standard Ebooks. https://standardebooks.org/EBOOKS/KARL-MARX_FRIEDRICH-

ENGELS/THE-COMMUNISTMANIFESTO/SAMUEL-MOORE.

Matthews, D. (2016, March 21). Inside Jacobin. Vox.

https://www.vox.com/2016/3/21/11265092/jacobin-bhaskar-sunkara

84 McManus, J. H. (1997). Who’s responsible for journalism? Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 12(1),

5.

Means of production. (n.d.). Oxford Reference. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199231805.001.0001/acref-

9780199231805-e-1999

Meek, R. L. (1957). The Definition of Socialism: A Comment. The Economic Journal, 67(265),

135. https://doi.org/10.2307/2227652

Meeks, J. (2019, July 9). A Primer on the Different Types of Labor Unions. People’s Policy

Project. https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/07/09/a-primer-on-the-different-

types-of-labor-unions/

Merrill, J. C., & Nerone, J. C. (2002). The Four Theories of the Press Four and a Half Decades

Later: a retrospective. Journalism Studies, 3(1), 133–136.

Meyer, H. K., & Daniels, G. L. (2011). Community Journalism in an Online World. Foundations

of Community Journalism, 199–213.

https://www.academia.edu/4042681/Community_Journalism_in_an_Online_World

Monnay, T., & Hassan, I. (2020, April 8). Bernie Sanders’ small-dollar fueled campaign comes

to an end. OpenSecrets News. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/04/bernie-

sanders-ends-his-2020-bid/

85 Morash, A. (2020, December 15). Inside the DSA: How it Works, Where the Money Comes

From. Blue Tent. https://bluetent.us/arenas/organizing/inside-the-dsa-how-it-works-

where-the-money-comes-from_1/

Nelson, J. L. (2020). The Enduring Popularity of Legacy Journalism: An Analysis of Online

Audience Data. Media and Communication, 8(2), 40–50.

https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i2.2736

Panetta, G. (2020, March 25). See the results from every 2020 Democratic presidential primary

state so far. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/who-won-every-

democratic-primary-state-results-votes-delegate-count?international=true&r=US&IR=T

Perrin, N. (2019, March 20). US Native Advertising 2019. Insider Intelligence.

https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-native-advertising-2019

Rantanen, T. (2017). A “Crisscrossing” Historical Analysis of Four Theories of the Press.

International Journal of Communication (Online), 3454.

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. (2021). Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020.

https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2020/overview-key-findings-2020/

Salvatore, N. (2007). Eugene V. Debs: citizen and socialist. University of Illinois Press.

Schwartz, J. M. (2017, July). History. Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/history/

86 Scott, M., Bunce, M., & Wright, K. (2019). Foundation Funding and the Boundaries of

Journalism. Journalism Studies, 20(14), 2034–2052.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670x.2018.1556321

Serazio, M. (2020). Making (Branded) News: The Corporate Co-optation of Online Journalism

Production. Journalism Practice, 14(6), 679–696.

Silver, N. (2020, April 15). Was The Democratic Primary A Close Call Or A Landslide?

FiveThirtyEight. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/was-the-democratic-primary-a-

close-call-or-a-landslide/

Smith, N. (2011, April 11). The Economics of Monasticism. Medievalists.Net.

https://www.medievalists.net/2011/04/the-economics-of-monasticism/

Shawn, W. (1990). The Fever. Wischik.com. http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/fever.html

Shore, E. (1985). Selling socialism: the Appeal to Reason and the radical press in turn-of-the-

century America. Media, Culture & Society, 7(2), 147–168.

Shore, E. (1986). The Walkout at the “Appeal” and the Dilemmas of American Socialism.

History Workshop, 22, 41–55.

Sirrah, A. (2019, September 6). Guide to Native Advertising. Columbia Journalism Review.

https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/native-ads.php#whomakes

Sloan, D. W., & Copeland, D. A. (2012). The News Media: A Documentary History. Vision

Press.

87 Streitmatter, R. (2001). Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. Columbia

University Press.

The Marxist Project. (2019, January 31). Fundamentals of Marx: Surplus Labor and Value

[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzqm9QHls60&feature=youtu.be

The New York Times Company. (2020, March). The New York Times Company 2019 Annual

Report. https://nytco-assets.nytimes.com/2020/04/Final-2019-Annual-Report.pdf

Umali, M. M. (2012, August 1). Reader, Bill and Hatcher, John A. (eds), Foundations of

Community Journalism. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy,

144, 182.

Uzuegbunam, C. E. (2013). Social responsibility theory: a contemporary review. A postgraduate

Seminar paper presented to the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social

Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Nigeria. Retreived April 23, 2021 from

https://www.academia.edu/11187397/The_social_responsibility_theory_A_contemporary

_review

Warner, M. (2002). Publics and Counterpublics. Public Culture, 14(1), 49–90.

https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-14-1-49

Wojdynski, B. W., & Golan, G. J. (2016). Native Advertising and the Future of Mass

Communication. American Behavioral Scientist, 60(12), 1403–1407.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764216660134

Methods

88 Berger, A. A. (2019). Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to

Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Reis, R. (n.d.). Strategies to Promote a Deep Approach to Reading. Tomorrow’s Professor

Postings. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from

https://tomorrowsprofessor.sites.stanford.edu/posting/928

Findings

Ackerman, S. (2020). The Victory to Come. Jacobin Summer 2020, 38, 134-138.

Atherton, A. (2019). Eight Hours to Work, Eight Hours to Sleep, Eight Hours For What We

Will. Jacobin Spring 2019, 33, 10.

Balhorn, L (2019). Balhorn, Kreuzberg Against the Machine. Jacobin Spring 2019, 33, 76-77.

Bessner, D. (2021). Don’t Trust the Process. Jacobin Winter 2021, 40, 41-54.

Better Red Than Dead (2018). Jacobin Winter 2018, 28, 34-42.

Burtenshaw, R. (2017). Fascism’s Face Lift. Jacobin Fall 2017, 27, 123-124.

Burtenshaw, R. (2018). Summoning the Future. Jacobin Winter 2018, 28, 19-28.

Chibber, V. (2020, September 22). Jacobin’s Achievement — And Our Mission in the Decade to

Come. Jacobin. https://jacobinmag.com/2020/09/jacobin-ten-year-anniversary-chibber

Creegan, J. (2018, March). Walking the tightrope. Weekly Worker.

https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1195/walking-the-tightrope/

89 Day, M. (2018). Rich People Kill Themselves. Jacobin Winter 2018, 28, 94-97.

Day, M. (2019). Homeless People Don’t Need an App, They Need a Fucking House. Jacobin

Spring 2019, 33,104-105.

Donate (2013). Jacobin Fall 2013, 11-12, 51.

Elk, M. (2018, September 28). Jacobin Accused of Reneging on Wage Deal in British Takeover

of Tribune Magazine. Payday Report. https://paydayreport.com/jacobin-publisher-

accused-of-reneging-on-wage-deal-in-takeover-of-british-magazine-the-tribune/

Featherstone, L. (2020, February 19). Are You Reading Propaganda Right Now? Jacobin.

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/02/are-you-reading-propaganda-right-now

Featherstone, L. (2020, September 24). Happy Birthday, Jacobin! Here’s to Ten More Years.

Jacobin. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/09/happy-birthday-jacobin-ten-years

Gaffney, A. (2018). Do We Need Pfizer? Jacobin Winter 2018, 28, 58-66.

Guastella, D. (2021). Everyone Hates the Democrats. Jacobin Winter 2021, 40, 119-125.

Haymarket Books (2017). Jacobin Fall 2017, 27, 46-47.

Hill, D. (2018, May 14). NWU and Jacobin Reach a Freelancer Agreement. NWU.

https://nwu.org/nwu-and-jacobin-reach-a-freelancer-agreement/

Himmelstein, D., Woolhandler, S., (2018). How Single Payer Could Fail. Jacobin Winter 2018,

28, 51-57.

90 Jacobin (2021). Jacobin Reading Groups. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from

https://jacobinmag.com/reading-groups

Jager, A., Leusder, D., (2020). The Prophet of Inequality. Jacobin Summer 2020, 38, 41-45.

James, B. (2017, July 14). Top Marx: socialist magazine Jacobin’s staffers unionize. The

Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/19/jacobin-magazine-staff-union

Jones, E. (2013). The Fantastic Failure of ‘The Lone Ranger’ Jacobin Fall 2013, 11-12, 61-67.

Letters (2021). Jacobin Winter 2021, 40, 14.

Lewis, C., & Narefsky, K. (2019). Brunch Bros Are Just a Symptom. Jacobin Spring 2019, 33, 9.

Maisano, C. (2011). Take This Job and Share It: On loving work and hating freedom. Jacobin

Winter 2011, 1, 6.

Maisano, C. (2020, September 26). Don’t Study Collective Action Alone: Ten Years of Jacobin.

Jacobin. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/09/jacobin-ten-year-anniversary-reading-

groups

Matthews, D. (2016, March 21). Inside Jacobin. Vox.

https://www.vox.com/2016/3/21/11265092/jacobin-bhaskar-sunkara

McLemee, S. (2013). Reading Materiel. Jacobin Fall 2013, 11-12, 48.

NWU (2018, May 11). Jacobin. NWU. https://nwu.org/jacobin/

91 O’Donovan, C. (2014, September 16). Jacobin: A Marxist rag run on a lot of petty-bourgeois

hustle. Nieman Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2014/09/jacobin-a-marxist-rag-run-on-a-

lot-of-petty-bourgeois-hustle/#disqus_thread

Our Annual Physical (2018). Jacobin Winter 2018, 28, 110.

Parker, M., Hernon, I., & Osgerby, G. (2018). Letters to Bhaskar Sunkara. Letters to Bhaskar

Sunkara. https://www.theredroar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Letters-to-Bhaskar-

Sunkara.pdf

Polity (2019). Jacobin Spring 2019, 33, 11.

ProPublica (n.d.). Jacobin Foundation Ltd - Nonprofit Explorer. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/464332395

Purushothaman, K. (2020, December 16). Interview: “There Is Now Racialised Thinking Not

Only on the Right but Also on the Left.” The Wire. https://thewire.in/world/interview-bhaskar- sunkara-jacobin-us-politics-socialism-biden

Sechler Morgan. (2020, January 2). Program Service or Supporting Activity? Get Your Expense

Allocation Right. https://www.azcpa.com/featured/expenseallocation/

Subscription Price (2017). Jacobin Fall 2017, 27, 7.

Sunkara, B. (2011). Editor’s Note: Introducing Jacobin. Jacobin Winter 2011, 1, 1.

Sunkara, B. (2011). Web Exclusives. Jacobin Winter 2011, 1, 35.

92 Sunkara, B. (2012). Praxis. Jacobin Spring 2012, 6, 2.

Sunkara, B. (2014) Our Plans for 2014: Jacobin Needs Your Help. Jacobin Winter 2014, 13, 75.

Sunkara, B. (2015). Seasons Change, Mad Things Rearrange. Jacobin Spring 2015, 17, 88.

Sunkara, B. (2017) Socialism Won’t Be Built in a Day. Jacobin Fall 2017, 27, 10.

Sunkara, B. (2018, August 22). Jacobin Is for the Children. Jacobin.

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/jacobin-is-for-the-children/

Sunkara, B. (2019). A Make or Break Year. Jacobin Fall 2018, 31, 120-121.

Rank and File (2016). Jacobin Summer 2016, 22, 1-98.

The European Left (2012). Jacobin Spring 2012, 6, 31-48.

The Graduate Center (2021) Jacobin Winter 2021, 40, 126.

The News Guild of New York. (n.d.). Who We Are: Members Represented By The NewsGuild.

NYGuild. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from https://www.nyguild.org/guild-bargaining-units

Heideman, P. (2015). Technology and Socialist Strategy. Jacobin Spring 2015, 17, 15.

Your Quarterly Horoscope (2021). Jacobin Winter 2021, 40, 157.

Zickgraf, R. (2021). Cyberpunk Needs a Reboot. Jacobin Winter 2021, 40, 114-117.

93