San Francisco Blog

Say what you will about Arthur magazine, the left-of-everything counter-culture and music publication, but so far it's really become the story of the little rag that could. After ceasing publishing in Spring 2007, the independent magazine came back with a fresh look and a couple new editorial ideas by the Fall. Now it seems Arthur has survived another scrape with death. Last week the publisher sent out a frantic ransom note to all its fans that folks needed to round up $20,000 or "[Arthur] will die." Well, as of today, it looks like readers ponied up the cash -- to the amount of $20,939.00 from some 239 donations. In an era where all we hear about are newspaper layoffs and the terrible media economy, the fact that people care this much about a magazine that has little commercial aim or value is a pretty cool testament to the importance of the little guy with the big vision in the field (even if, ok, some of those 6,000-word articles are way too esoteric for my taste). Looks like round two on this one goes to Arthur as well. -- Jennifer Maerz