Raise the Hammer
A new partnership with Mayday Magazine will see a proper RTH print edition.
By Ryan McGreal
Nov. 23, 2006
Regular RTH readers will know that we have been chewing at the bit for some time to go to print. Toward this end, we recently introduced a print-it-yourself edition, an eight page, 8 1/2 x 11 digest that comes out nicely on your home printer and looks lovely in your local cafe.
However, we know this is an inadequate solution. It depends on readers to supply their own paper and take the time to print it off and distribute it. Also, the layout, generated by a computer program rather than a creative, talented designer, leaves something to be desired aesthetically.
Unfortunately, going to print properly is no easy task. It's time-consuming to design and lay out, frightfully expensive to print, and awkward to distribute. Since the members of RTH lack free time, money, and, well, coordination, the challenge seemed insurmountable.
I found myself thinking, "Wouldn't it be great if someone just came up to us and said, 'Give us your content and we'll take care of everything else'?" Of course, such wishful thinking is cute at best and dangerously delusional at worst. Life just doesn't work that way.
Except, that's pretty much exactly what happened.
Starting in December, right around the second anniversary of our first-ever online issue, Raise the Hammer will appear in Mayday Magazine, a monthly magazine published by the Sky Dragon Centre.
The December issue will be a two-page spread in the magazine, but future plans include publishing RTH as a separate insert inside Mayday, with its own masthead and pagination.
Mayday is already financially sustainable (i.e. ad revenue pays for layout, printing, and distribution), a remarkable feat in the short time since the magazine was launched, and Lauren Olsen, the executive editor, believes she will be able to work the same miracle with the RTH insert.
Now, this means the print edition will have some advertising, a situation we have managed to avoid online. This is a necessary evil, since the money for printing and distribution has to come from somewhere. However, the RTH website will remain ad-free, and the print edition will not include ads for anything offensive (e.g. drugs, sex, or war).
We will still publish the Raise the Hammer web edition twice monthly, and Mayday will publish the Raise the Hammer Print Edition once a month, featuring a mix of articles from our print editions and the Hammerblog.
Raise the Hammer would like to thank Lauren Olsen, Kevin McKay (director of the Sky Dragon Centre), and all the Sky Dragon staff and volunteers for such a wonderful opportunity to reach more citizens.
Sky Dragon, like Raise the Hammer, is interested in producing social change toward a more engaged, participatory, vibrant, and democratic community that lives sustainably and solves its problems through cooperation, tolerance, and incremental change toward more positive outcomes.
Sky Dragon itself is a working implementation of a non-profit organization model that is self-sustaining (i.e. not subsidized by the government) and publicly run (i.e. directly by engaged citizens rather than indirectly by the government). It has grown in a very short time by bootstrapping creatively from nothing into a multi-use downtown community centre (27 King William St, just east of James), a print magazine, and a community development foundation.
Sky Dragon is living proof that the caricatures and aspersions of Hamilton's ruling elite are false and misleading. Rather than a group of complainers and obstructionists, Sky Dragon is a collective of innovators and enablers working together to improve the community.
Raise the Hammer is honoured and inspired to cooperate with Sky Dragon in writing content for Mayday Magazine.
By adrian | http://socialtech.ca/ade/
Posted 11/30/2006 7:44:34 AM
Hey urban activist,
I absolutely agree with you that it would be wonderful if RTH could get to those other, unconverted folks.
There seems to be few if any downsides to this deal, however. RTH will reach more readers, and its unlikely RTH will alienate the people who "wouldn't pick up a lefty rag if they were paid to" because if they're not picking up Mayday, how will they even notice?
RTH is committed to non-partisanship and will continue to be an independent voice for renewal in this city regardless of the partnerships we form with other organizations.
further to that, it would be great to find a way of 'reaching the other folks' who don't get informed about these issues in the mainstream media.
Obviously Mayday won't do that for us, but it's a great deal in terms of getting to print. Many folks don't own computers or intentionally avoid them. Having print issues will certainly bring new readers to RTH.
Where does one pick up a Mayday mag anyway?
By Ryan | http://www.raisethehammer.org
Posted 12/1/2006 4:20:23 PM
Hi DC, glad you asked. I asked the Mayday executive editor, and she sent me the following list:
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Mayday Magazine is ALWAYS distributed at:
McMaster University: the Student Centre, Michael Degroot School of Business, Heath Science, Life Science, Psychology building, Arts Quad, Mills library, The Phoenix, John Hodgkins Engineering building, The Birks Science building
Mohawk College: libraries and book stores (Fennell and Brantford campuses)
Downtown Hamilton: All galleries and art supply stores on James Street North and South, the Sonic Onion, Dr Disc, the James Street Book Cellar, Parker Pearce Gallery Loose Cannon, The Artists Inc, The Factory, The Print Studio, James Street Laundromat, etc., all along Locke Street (Bad Dog cafe, West Town, Unitarian Church, Art Galleries and antique stores) Main Street (The Reptile Store, Family Subs and local tattoo shops) and King Street (Subway, Jackson Square, downtown library, local businesses)... We are also distributed at City Hall, The Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Hamilton Convention Centre, the GO station, etc.
On Hamilton Mountain: The Shady Grove, the Mountain Plaza Mall, Terry Berry library, all along Upper James Street, Mohawk
High schools, including Westmount High School, Delta Secondary, Highland, Ancaster High, Parkside, Westdale, McNabb, Sir John A Macdonald, ETC
Ancaster: Silver City, Chapters, Second Cup, Blockbuster, Subway, Booster Juice, Starbucks,
Westdale: The Book Worm, Second Cup, The Snooty Fox, Subway, Williams Coffee Pub, King Paisley Pub, McMaster Credit Union, Q&Q Tea Shop, Tim Horton's, the Movie Theatre, Westdale Laundromat, Vital Planet, the library, ETC
We also distribute to the OSSTF office and the HDLC headquarters, CUPE 5167, and CUPW
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the new Mayday is out now....you can grab it at Bread and Roses cafe on King William....RTH is in there.
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By urban activist
Posted 11/29/2006 7:43:28 PM
I think Skydragon has commendable goals etc., but I must say I find MayDay just too out there LEFT-wise. Are you not worried that by being in MayDay you'll alienate those that wouldn't pick up a lefty rag if they were paid to?? Wouldn't it be great if RTH could get to those other folks...not already 'the converted'??
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