Another magazine folds

Breaking: Vibe Magazine to Fold
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 min online Steve Smith

Breaking: Vibe Magazine Closes
Hip hop magazine succumbs to debt and ad collapse.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 Folio: Vanessa Voltolina and Bill Mickey

NEED event: subscriber movie night

Throughout the summer NEED will be hosting fun events in the Twin Cities. Here are details about a movie night for subscribers.

Join the NEED crew at our office to watch one of our favorite films,



When: Friday, July 10
Come to the office at 8 pm to chat and enjoy some snacks. The movie will start at dusk.

Where: NEED office
2303 Kennedy St. NE, Suite 502
Minneapolis, MN 55413

Spaces are limited! For info contact Lauren Fischer.

"Save The World" Challenge Images

Refugee children in Egypt/ant-prejudice activities at a Peace Camp.
photo | Khalil Ansara
organization | Catholic Relief Services/Caritas

Kosovo Roma are still refugees in Serbia 10 years after the end of the
war.
photo | Franek Strzeszewski
organization | NEXUS

This photo parallels the song "Society" by Eddie Vedder. Bend, OR.
photo | Emily C. Green

Submit to the "Save The World" Challenge

"Save The World" Challenge Images

A Rwandan orphan.
photo | Kresta King Cutcher Venning
organization | Gisimba Memorial Center

Juan refuses to take the oral medication that goes with his chemotherapy.
photo | Jennifer Ditona
organization | Mi Gran Esperanza

Mixing compost and putting it in tree sacs to plant for our arboretum.
photo | Naomi Brown
organization | SIM International

Submit to the "Save The World" Challenge

"STM - STW" in the News

A push to spotlight readers, ditch advertising
Downtown Journal by Sarah McKenzie

"Save The World" Challenge Images

An AIDS orphan in Mozambique teaching other children how to say the alphabet.
photo | Mansir Petrie
organization | Save the Children

Philadelphia Homeless Man: Destitution in America
photo | Ronald Modro

A group of students eagerly anticipate candy at a school in Thaton, Thailand.
photo | Rachel Marie Robichaux
organization | Full Life Development

Submit to the "Save The World" Challenge

Screw The Man, Save the World at the LOOK3 Festival

“Screw The Man [Save the world] really went over big,” says photographer Steve Floyd about the campaign at the LOOK3 photography festival. “Especially when dealing with photographers and magazine people, they really understood that!” Floyd explained that photographers at the festival stuck SCREWTHEMAN stickers to their equipment and talked about how advertising interferes with the stories that need to be told. “They knew the purpose [of the campaign] without it even having to be explained, they were saying, ‘who wants to pay advertising? Then [without ads] we can write and show what we want to show. What a great idea.’”

"Screw The Man" on Think MTV

Our friends at Think MTV blogged about the "screwtheman - savetheworld" campaign. Read it here.

Come hang with the NEED crew

Some of the crew at the SPJ awards.

The very first NEED Meet and Greet event will be on Wednesday, June 24th. This relaxed and fun event at Spill the Wine restaurant and lounge gives us a chance to meet you and you a chance to meet NEED staff, contributing writers, and photographers.

Hope to see you there!

Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Time: 4:30pm - 7:00pm
Location: Spill the Wine
Street: 1101 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55415
Click for Directions

Stay tuned for other fun summer events
NEED is planning on hosting a number of events this summer including several speaking events, a film festival, a gallery showing, a movie night at the NEED office and more.

"Save The World" Challenge Images

South Africa. Limpopo Province, Kgaustwane.
photo | Josh Dick
organization | Hippo Roller International

Baby Tao, a Chinese orphan, was saved through heart surgery.
photo | John Dai
organization | Love Without Boundaries Foundation

A woman trys to breast feed her two young twins who are suffering from malnutrition.
photo | Kate Holt

Submit to the "Save The World" Challenge

Music helps rescue girls from the sex trade

According to the US Department of State, between 10,000 and 15,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked into India every year as part of the sex trade. One American band, Wookiefoot, is doing something to change this.

Recently, this band contacted us at NEED to talk to us about the Project Earth music festival. At this festival, founded by Wookiefoot in 2006, 100 percent of the proceeds go to various charities.

NEED was able to connect Wookiefoot with four different organizations previously featured in the magazine, one of which was the Peace Rehabilitation Center (PRC) in Kathmandu, Nepal. PRC is an organization that rescues girls from the sex trade by patrolling the border between Nepal and India, working with police in both countries and teaching Nepalese communities to identify traffickers and protect their young women. Once these girls are rescued, PRC provides housing, health care and job training, and helps them reunite with their families if possible.

The money donated by Wookiefoot to PRC will allow border patrols to stay open and continue stopping the trafficking of young girls into India as well as help pay for girls rescued in India to go to safe houses near their homes in Nepal. For this small organization in impoverished Nepal, the cost of rescuing these girls and transporting them sometimes vast distances to safe houses can be overwhelming, and every donation allows them to free still more girls from bondage and keep others being forced into the sex trade.

To have a group of musicians call us up and ask how they could help was amazing. When we write these stories about small organizations giving everything they have to save lives, we tend to fall in love with those NGOs. Anytime someone tells us that they want to support these organizations, we are off-the-wall ecstatic. Thanks to Wookiefoot, we know that more girls will be saved and it makes us feel like everything we do to keep our publication going is worth it.

Along with its donation to PRC, Wookiefoot is giving proceeds from the previous Project Earth festival to the Rabondo Community Project in Kenya, The Miguel Angel Asturias Academy in Guatemala, and the Nurani Insani School for street children in Indonesia. The sold-out Project Earth 2009 festival begins this weekend, June 26-27, in Geneva, Minnesota. Wookiefoot looks forward to being able to expand their impact around the world by giving the proceeds from this year’s event to these and other charities.

We at NEED are fast becoming fans of Wookiefoot for their willingness to use their skills to aid humanity and leave their footprint on a better Earth.

"Save The World" Challenge Images

Children carry heavy tanks of water on their heads in Mafi Zongo region, Ghana.
photo | Erberto Zani
organization | AMURT Italy

Innocence of joy. Mekong river, Laos
photo | Petr Jerabek

Infant from Uganda left in hut with dead parents and rescued by a neighbor.
photo | Matt Chambers
organization | Safewater Nexus

Submit to the "Save The World" Challenge

"Save The World" Challenge Images

Operation Smile volunteers treat an Iraqi child in Amman, Jordan.
photo | Chet Gordon
organization | Operation Smile

A typical Malagasy child: bold, and eager to move forward.
photo | Joni Kabana
organization | Tapori and 4th World Movement

"Black & White Unite" N. Kinangop, Kenya
photo | Chiloe Kottke

Submit to the "Save The World" Challenge

"SAVE PASTE": A fellow publisher's fight and success

NEED’s co-founder Kelly Kinnunen talked with Josh Jackson, editor-in-chief at Paste Magazine, about Paste’s struggle to keep the much-loved music magazine afloat during the economic downturn. “Save Paste” is the campaign that formed after dedicated readers expressed their concerns about the magazine and asked what they could do to help. Like the “screwtheman | savetheworld” campaign, Save Paste gives power back to readers who love a magazine and don’t want to see it fold.

Kelly: So, why Save Paste?

Josh: We had experienced such a drop in magazine advertisers like a lot of people did over the course of the last year, and we had been trying to react to that from a business standpoint and change our business model quickly, but we just couldn’t quite react quickly enough and we were left with an inability to keep moving forward without a little help. … A couple readers emailed saying “hey, let us know if you ever need help, we don’t want you to go away.” And so we followed their advice and went to them and explained what the need was and just tried to be as transparent as possible.

[Artists we’ve worked with] were very generous in offering these rare, exclusive songs for our donors to download. So the way we set it up is anybody who donates $1 to $1000 gets access to all these tracks. We have about 75 different artists and we’re up to 150 now, so if somebody donates they get rare, exclusive tracks from folks like Neko Case, The Decemberists, Of Montreal, The Avett Brothers, The Indigo Girls – just all these cool artists that have offered their music to help us.

Kelly: I thought that was a really cool feature of your campaign – to offer your readers something unique. Tell me more about readers’ responses.

Josh: It’s been mostly positive. One of the things we didn’t know is if we’d get lambasted for being a for-profit company acting like a nonprofit, you know, asking for donations. It’s kind of an odd place to be. But yeah, it’s been in the press, people have blogged about it, Twittered and shared it on Facebook, so everybody’s been pretty positive and trying to help. … There have been so many great magazines that folded during this downturn and people are sick of seeing that happen. By doing something a little bit different, we could be a success story and I think that rallied a lot of people around us. It’s been really affirming for everyone on staff that people don’t want to see this thing go away and so we’ve got a renewed vigor to not let it die, to come back stronger, to really offer as much value as we can to our readers.

Kelly: If your readers and donors see this article, what would you like to say to them?

Josh: Oh, just a heartfelt thank you. It’s been such a humbling experience to share our position in need, but also such an encouraging one. Just their responses have lifted spirits over here and given us renewed energy.

- Ellen Frazel

"Save The World" Challenge Images

It is harder and harder for a female to get an education in Pakistan.
photo | Gary Chapman

A little boy stays close to his mother- Freetown, Sierra Leone.
photo | Susan Braun
organization | Society of International Humanitarian Surgeons

A doctor from the Korean Medical Assoc. looks at a x-ray of a earthquake victim.
photo | Nayan Sthankiya

Submit to the "Save The World" Challenge

STM-STW NYC

I recently had the opportunity to visit the grand city of New York. During my stay I definitely wasn’t going to pass up the great photo-ops NYC has to offer. Especially when I have a cool sign to pose with.


Like Kyra’s experience, what started out as a serious endeavor soon turned into silliness. After many curious stares, laughs and pointing we couldn’t help but laugh too.


Hope you enjoy seeing the pictures as much as we did taking them.

- Lauren Fischer

"Save The World" Photo Challenge

Do you have a great image depicting "saving the world?" Submit it to NEED, the humanitarian magazine*.


photos | John Abernathy (1 and 2), Claudia Janke, Scott Harrison, Yan Sieler, Maciej Dakowicz and Paul Corbit Brown

Your image will be shared on the blog of our new campaign; "screw the man - save the world." Top images will be selected to be displayed on the NEED magazine homepage. And with the success of the "stm-stw" campaign, may appear in the print version of NEED.

What to send:

1. Your best single image depicting saving the world in jpeg format no bigger than 500px by 500px
2. 65 character (not 65 words) description of the image
3. Name and URL of the aid organization affiliated with your image, if any
4. Your full name
5. URL of your website

NEED is a photo-driven publication about life-changing global humanitarian efforts. This is your chance to be part of it.

Submit your images to photos@screwtheman.net

www.screwtheman.net | www.needmagazine.com

*Do not send images that are vulgar, racist, sexist, overtly political or pornographic. Inappropriate images will not be displayed.

Details on "The Screw" prize

PLAY It Forward founder, Jodi Nelson, talks about “saving the world” through adventure.

ScrewTheMan Hits the Press

NEED Mag Wants to Evict Advertisers
min Online By Steve Smith

Magazine Starts Grassroots Campaign to Free Itself from Advertising
Need's 'Screw the Man, Save the World' project inspired by 'Save Paste.'
FOLIO: By Dylan Stableford

David Doody: NEED, the Humanitarian Magazine: 'Screw the Man, Save the World'
Guernica Magazine By David Doody

The Economy Tumbles and Print Media Falls With It. We want to weather the storm.

The Man is pinching every penny, starting with the media’s traditional lifeline—advertisements. That’s why we at NEED say, “Screw the Man.” Everyday headlines read “Another failing newspaper or magazine.” Below are examples of how losing The Man’s propaganda (commercial advertisements) is bankrupting media outlets that readers want to see. It was articles like these that inspired our campaign. Maybe if others follow our lead, we can start to change the headlines—and Save the World.

Can Anything Save Magazines?
Why higher cover and subscription prices might work.
In tough times, Husni says, a greater reliance on subscription revenue is a safer bet than advertisers. "The chances of, say, a half-million subscribers going bankrupt and canceling subscriptions is far less than 50 major advertisers going bankrupt or cutting their ad budgets," he says.

Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse For Newspapers? Wrong

Consumer Mag Ad Pages Plunge 25.9 Percent
Ad revenue drops 20.2 percent in first quarter.

Blender Folds
Music magazine latest to succumb to recession.

Paste Launches Campaign to Save its Magazine
Cash-strapped music title appeals to readers ‘rather than shut its doors.'

Why Portfolio Folded, And What It Means for Business Magazines
Sector continues to struggle despite ‘demand.’

Twelve Major Media Brands Likely To Close In 2009

Checking in on the endangered list
Which consumer magazines are the next to fold?

Canadian Magazines Fold in Wake of Bad Economy

Portfolio Magazine Shut, a Victim of Recession

Minneapolis Star Tribune files for bankruptcy

Screwing The Man In San Francisco

Last week before the “Screw the Man, Save the World” campaign launched, I had a bizarre laughter-filled day walking around San Francisco with a “Screw the Man” sign. I headed out with my best bud, Jacqui Belleau, to take some pictures around the city. We ended up on the Golden Gate for a few windy, foggy hours. As you can imagine, the looks and questions that a sign like that evokes were enough to make anyone giggle. What started off as a work project, quickly turned into enjoying ourselves perhaps a little too much!

- Kyra Gibson

Minneapolis-based NEED magazine says 'Screw the Man, Save the World'

Read Gina Czupka's article on the "screwtheman" campaign for the Minneapolis Budget Travel Examiner. >> read the article

NEED magazine launches campaign to go ad-free

Read Paul Schmelzer's article on the "screwtheman" campaign for the Minnesota Independent. >> read the article

Official "ScrewTheMan" News Release

Download a PDF of the official "ScrewTheMan" news release

SCREWTHEMAN, SAVETHEWORLD? What is this all about?

The best photographers in the world want to inspire people to action by taking photos where people are suffering. NEED magazine wants to tell stories about our heroes who are saving the world through humanitarian efforts. Readers crave inspiration from stories like these. So why is it difficult for a media organization to publish these stories?

Advertising dollars fueled print media in the past. Publications go to great lengths to drive up their circulation numbers in order to entice corporations to buy advertising space. This money comes with a price. Because advertisers control a large portion of publications’ revenue, they can easily dictate the content within written media. During this recession, many media organizations are discovering how unstable advertising money is. As corporations go bankrupt, so do publications that rely on these companies for advertising money. In response to this, NEED magazine is saying, “Screw the man.”

NEED magazine is a small, independent magazine which tells uplifting stories of hope about humanitarian aid. The publication was started by a couple who sold all they had to help humanitarian efforts by inspiring others. The “ScrewTheMan, SaveTheWorld” campaign is a push to drive up subscriptions so that NEED will not have to rely on advertisers for revenue.  If we reach just 25,000 subscribers, NEED can kick advertisers to the curb for the length of these subscriptions. Since all the money sustaining the publication will come directly from subscribers, NEED will not be influenced by outside corporations, and the driving force of the magazine will be the readers themselves.

With every ad removed, NEED will have more space within each issue. We want to fill these pages with readers’ stories. If a reader has volunteered building a well in Sierra Leone, we want to publish it in the magazine so that this story might influence someone else to take a similar action. In this way, every reader has the power to join the founders’ goal of inspiring others to help. ScrewTheMan, SaveTheWorld is about making readers the lifeblood of NEED magazine and expanding its impact.

What’s more, of every 5000 new subscribers gained during this campaign, NEED will randomly choose one to win a PLAY it Forward Adventures trip. PLAY it Forward Adventures combines adventure sports with volunteer relief in exciting destinations all over the world. We are excited to possibly have the opportunity to provide people with the travel experience of a lifetime all while furthering our goal of publishing a magazine that inspires everyone to do their part to save the world.