Struggling magazine Paste asks readers for donations

The trendy magazine Paste is asking its 205,000 readers to donate at least a dollar each to make up for slumping ad sales that are driving the Decatur-based publication out of business.

Paste Editor-in-Chief Josh Jackson said he needs donations in “the low six figures” to safely keep the magazine devoted to music, film and culture afloat.

“We have been trying to cut costs but apparently not fast enough,” Jackson said Wednesday. “We’re at the point where we have to go to the readers for a little help. We hope it will be a one-time thing.”

He said the Paste Web site put a donation page up on its web site Wednesday evening.

Jackson confirmed that the 15-member staff was taking a pay cut but he declined to name an amount. The Web site driveafastercar.com reported that sources at the magazine had said it was 20 percent cut.

One anonymous reader complained to Drive a Faster Car Editor Tessa Horehled that her Web site had characterized the Paste situation as trying to “scrounge up” enough funds to put out the next issue.

“Paste is hoping to weather the economic storm and is encouraging readers to donate to save the magazine,” wrote the anonymous reader, who described his or herself as being close to the Paste situation.

Horehled assured readers that she was simply reporting on the “Save Paste” initiative and not mocking the magazine’s dire straits.

Jackson said the 7-year-old magazine had hoped to make its own fundraising announcement Wednesday tonight but instead saw its predicament outed on the Internet. He said it was unclear how much the magazine had to raise to survive.

“We feel like even in the current ad climate we can break even for a while but we haven’t for some months,” he said. “We’ve dug a little hole and we have to fill it.”