Calling All Bitches!

The members of the ESC are all big fans of Bitch magazine, and Bitch needs our help right now. They have been affected by the economy and the declines in the magazine publishing industry and they're facing a financial crisis. The current issue of Bitch may be the last one if they can't raise $40,000 by October 15th.

First the bad news: The print publishing industry as a whole is staring into a void. Across the board, newsstand magazine sales are in a slump, subscriber numbers are down, and paper and postal costs continue to rise. But it's not magazines like US Weekly or Vogue that you'll see disappearing from the newsstands—they have the parent companies and the resources to weather industry ill winds. It's the small, independent magazines like Bitch that will disappear, because the odds are already stacked high against us. And simply put: We need to raise $40,000 by October 15th in order to print the next issue of Bitch.

Now the good news: While it's true that $40,000 is a lot of money, we know the number of you Bitch supporters is in the hundreds of thousands. And we're asking each of you who values independent, nonprofit media and intelligent feminist cultural analysis to contribute what you can to ensure that Bitch thrives. And while we can't say what form Bitch will take in the future (our direction will depend, in part, on your feedback), we can say that we've been hard at work to find an innovative publishing model that will allow us to maintain the spirit and integrity of Bitch while also reflecting the changing world around us.

As a nonprofit, reader-funded media organization, our fate really is—and always will be—in your hands. We don't need a parent company. We just need you!

The Bitch team has put together a funny (and sad) video about why they need help and what you can do, so check it out. Cute dogs and wiener jokes are involved, so you can't resist. Just watch.





In this world of abstinence only sex ed and Sarah Palin and Miley Cyrus and gay marriage bans and Jordin Sparks calling people sluts and anti-choice groups calling everyone sluts and on and on, we need magazines like Bitch to help us stay informed and stay sane. Feed the Bitch today!