[p2p-research] Sustainable counter-media — Radix Media on Kickstarter

[Kevin Carson]

  Sent to you by Kevin Carson via Google Reader: Sustainable
counter-media — Radix Media on Kickstarter via Out of the Libertarian
Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur on 11/14/10
Radix Media, a Portland-based radical offset printing and design
operation, has launched a modest $5000 Kickstarter campaign, to upgrade
their presses and invest in booklet-making equipment. They describe the
project as representing the difference between continuing the project,
and making it sustainable.

Sustainable operation is the goal that so few radical projects
reach—and the failure to properly plan, capitalize and equip projects
carries a hefty cost in failed projects, badly-used resources and
harried radicals, beaten down by the constant difficulties associated
with just getting by. When you're working on a shoe-string, a wing and
a prayer, every set-back is a potential disaster—and set-backs tend to
snowball.

For example, Corvus Editions had a thoroughly enjoyable, but
financially lack-luster Summer and Fall. The bookfairs that usually
push things along were not quite break-even affairs, however successful
they were as social gatherings and busman's holidays. When all was said
and done, I had a bit more merchandise printed, assembled and on-hand
than I had at the start of the summer, but I was running short on the
farm-waste papers I use to print most of the newer and more popular
titles in the catalog. Working hand-to-mouth, the hundred bucks
required for a paper order isn't always there. Making a smaller paper
order changes the cost of the product dramatically, since shipping
costs have to be absorbed by fewer products. But there's no time to
waste in restocking, since a paper order may take a week to arrive.
Since the shoestring is what it is, the logical way to order paper is
to refill toner cartridges, but that's a risky game in terms of
predictable print quality. And so on. The trade-offs are all risky, and
the calculations are all exhausting. And sometimes you make the best
use of the resources available to you and things just don't pan out. I
spent the Fall juggling resources while sales sagged—and then about the
time sales started to pick up I had a batch of handmade cover paper go
wrong on me and my laser printer (a wonderful little workhorse up to
this point, but one I have worked hard) started to give out. The
decision to go another $300 in debt to maintain a project that still
isn't really breaking even, in an economy that may well get harder on
really small businesses before the pendulum swings the other way, was,
to say the least, a wrenching one. In the end, I decided that I didn't
really have a lot of options but to push forward—but, having been in
the surplus labor pool for quite awhile now, and being, I think, pretty
realistic about the hurdles facing radical microenterprise, I'm not
sure I could claim it was the right decision. As much as anything, it
seems necessary to push back as hard as you can against a system which
forces you to ask whether a few hundred bucks might be more than your
project—or your life—is worth. So, as of day before yesterday, I have a
gently-used HP Laserjet 8150dn, (slightly out of date, but still
formidable, with automatic duplexing and tabloid-printing capability)
complete with the 2000-sheet feeder-cart and an extra HP toner
cartridge, which I was able pick up for a song—but not until I borrowed
the song. In the short-term, it means late order will only get a couple
of days later. In the long term, it opens up the possibility of doing
large-format reprints of periodical like The Firebrand or Liberty, and
re/producing broadsides at the size they really require. It opens the
possibility of experimenting with soy toner, which has been making
inroads precisely through companies supplying cartridges for this sort
of workgroup printer. As a much heavier-duty printer, it already seems
to have improved the project's print quality, fusing toner more
consistently on better and more unusual paper, at a significantly lower
per-page cost. (And I'll finally be able to do that skewer-binding
projects, using the metal rails from pendaflex folders...)

My printer upgrade is probably a good gamble, but it raises the stakes
for the Corvus project—and the more general project of keeping a roof
over my head and kibble in the cats's dish. But assuming that the basic
project is sound, and I still think it is, the increased risk is
probable worth it.

That said, it certainly would have been nice to do this when there
wasn't a crisis, on a basis that wasn't an intensification of my
current uncertain situation. The brilliance of micro-financing on the
Kickstarter model is that it reduces risks considerably on all sides.
Donation is possible, but the standard means of support is the purchase
of a specific good or service. And nobody is charged until the target
amount is reached, so either the project is launched or expanded with a
reasonable level of funding or nothing moves forward. There is a
reasonable expectation that any project that seems moderately
well-budgeted will at least produce the products committed to.

There is no question in my mind that we can develop networks of
sustainable presses, printers, distributors and infoshops, all on the
nickle-and-dime micro-enterprise model. The only question is whether
enough of us will ante up with the nickles and dimes to make it happen.
When it comes to choosing projects to support, particularly at this
stage in the struggle, committed printers and publishers seem like
something of a no-brainer. The improvements that Radix Media has
proposed would amplify their ability to do their job—which is to
amplify the voices of radicals. Take a look at the proposal and
consider contributing.
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