Questions we’ve heard over and over in the last year9/29/72
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
How can we afford to give the paper away for free? This question is best answered with another one, “how can we afford not to?” There are (for purposes of this argument, at least) three ways to begin a periodical. 1) You can start big, charging for the paper, and plan to invest a fortune in promotional activities. Look at Ms. They sold 400,000 copies of their first edition, sure. But they had Gloria Steinem touring the country and getting them on every front page in the nation…. Alternatively, you can use paid advertising: The Chicago Free Press (which lasted only a few weeks before it folded in the fall of 1970) spent thousands on radio, newspaper, even television advertising before they put out their first issue; they managed to sell about 20,000 copies of their first issue at a cover price of $.50, of which they maybe got $.10 and the newsstands and distributors got the rest. We had neither Gloria Steinem nor thousands for advertising, so that method was out.
Who runs the Reader? Currently, four people are working full-time on the Reader. Bob Roth, 25, is given the title “publisher.” He maintains the checkbook and plans the stories that appear in the paper. Bob McCamant, 23, is called the editor. He designs the paper, and edits the copy, and sends out the bills. He also does freelance advertising work, on which he supports himself. Tom Rehwaldt, 23, is director of circulation, which means he drives his own VW bug all over the city distributing the paper. He also does a large part of the layout work. He is employed three days a week, which is how he supports himself. Randy Barnett (Northwestern ’74) has been working full time as our advertising director for the latter part of the summer.
