Mothering Magazine has ceased publication

[DebbieJ]

They are now a web-only company

http://mothering.com/peggyomara/qpeditorials/how-we-became-a-web-company

If you have a current subscription, you will start receiving Natural Life magazine for the remainder of your term.

[sewarsh]

wow. although i'm not totally surprised. i let my subscription lapse a few months ago, but they've definately been pushing the online media for awhile now.

i can't help but wonder if they had lowered their price a little if they would have more subscribers. i think it was $20 for a year. compared to parents, parenting, etc that you can get for $5. clearly they are very different magazines but the disparity in prices could definately be factor. i didn't mind paying more for this magazine from time to time, but admit that i didn't always keep an active subscription becuase of the $20 price tag.

[hellokitty]

wow. although i'm not totally surprised. i let my subscription lapse a few months ago, but they've definately been pushing the online media for awhile now.

i can't help but wonder if they had lowered their price a little if they would have more subscribers. i think it was $20 for a year. compared to parents, parenting, etc that you can get for $5. clearly they are very different magazines but the disparity in prices could definately be factor. i didn't mind paying more for this magazine from time to time, but admit that i didn't always keep an active subscription becuase of the $20 price tag.


:yeahthat: I let mine lapse a few yrs ago and price was a reason. I felt that their articles were geared too much toward birth/babies and would have liked to see more variety of topics. I really HATE digital versions of magazines though. LLL has gone digital too and I HATE it. When it comes to magazines, I still want to be able to flip through it. For books, I have no trouble with an e-version, but not magazines.

[DebbieJ]

It sounds like they won't even be publishing the digital version. They will just feature online content on their website and of course keep the forums.

[Green_Tea]

:yeahthat: I let mine lapse a few yrs ago and price was a reason. I felt that their articles were geared too much toward birth/babies and would have liked to see more variety of topics. I really HATE digital versions of magazines though. LLL has gone digital too and I HATE it. When it comes to magazines, I still want to be able to flip through it. For books, I have no trouble with an e-version, but not magazines.

I totally agree. They really lacked content for people with older kids. I'd look at the magazine while I waited in line at Whole Foods, and there was always the usual assortment of breastfeeding/home birth/best natural toys articles but rarely anything new. The beat the same horses to death.

[kijip]

They solicit donations on their site, plus ad content of course. This is just part of a larger trend for very local or niche issue/demographic specific news content to shift towards a hybrid fundraising model. It is fascinating and it is a shift that is happening all through smaller media. We are going to see more of it. I do think that if their content was more relevant to older kids, they could have found a way forwards with print, as everyone I know in their demographic (including myself) subscribed but stopped once the kids were a little older. Basically they are becoming a blog with a message community (which people either pay to avoid ads or view a lot of ads). Most of the content was about birth and infancy, not so much for older kids. Maybe 1 article per issue for older kids.

Parents and similar are not in the same league as Mothering. The content to ad ratio is way higher and the ads are coming from larger companies with much larger print advertising budgets. Also circulation is much higher, and that lowers the marginal costs of printing and mailing more. A magazine like Mothering, Ms, Brain, Child simply can not offer $5 subscriptions.

[american_mama]

>> They solicit donations on their site, plus ad content of course. This is just part of a larger trend... to shift towards a hybrid fundraising model

Katie, I've never bought or subscribed to Mothering Magazine, nor do I participate in their forums. But I wondered what are they soliciting donations for, and how is this "fundraising" or opposed to profit-generating? I mean, Mothering is a business, right, not a non-profit? I know they have an ideological direction and promote lots of non-corporate, non-saleable things like breastfeeding, natural birth information, but still, at their core, they are a business, aren't they?

I wouldn't donate money to a business, even if I agreed with everything that it was doing, just to keep it afloat. I wondered what you meant by donations and fundraising.

[kijip]

>> They solicit donations on their site, plus ad content of course. This is just part of a larger trend... to shift towards a hybrid fundraising model

Katie, I've never bought or subscribed to Mothering Magazine, nor do I participate in their forums. But I wondered what are they soliciting donations for, and how is this "fundraising" or opposed to profit-generating? I mean, Mothering is a business, right, not a non-profit? I know they have an ideological direction and promote lots of non-corporate, non-saleable things like breastfeeding, natural birth information, but still, at their core, they are a business, aren't they?

I wouldn't donate money to a business, even if I agreed with everything that it was doing, just to keep it afloat. I wondered what you meant by donations and fundraising.


They are phrasing it as donation (though I assume and seriously hope they clarify for people that it is a non-deductible "donation"). I know that some businesses are adopting non-profit strategies like pay what you can, sliding scales and encouraging people to pay a little more if they are really supportive, just as non-profits are adopting some regular enterprise strategies like fee for service and selling mission related and non mission related products. The lines are getting blurry. All sorts of hybrids have emerged. 1/3 of my orgs income comes from selling a media/information product. It is fundraising to ask people for money like they are and their supporting membership is similar to a non-profit news model like NPR. They might actually, as a for-profit, be violating charitable solicitation laws in their state, I don't know how they are registered.

I would not donate to Mothering either, but I might pay for web only content if I was interested.

In the letter linked above there is a mention towards the bottom of donating if you support them.

Here is the link:

http://www.mothering.com/subscribe

You have the option of a donor generated amount or a membership. Not altogether different from my work's donate page.

When the Seattle PI folded, a bunch of journalists formed an online, non-profit paper instead (competing with the online only PI). Crosscut (http://crosscut.com/) is another example of media shifting to a non-profit model. I have had people form private papers contact me to research fundraising. I think it is very fascinating to see what happens in the next 2 decades to print and other traditional media.

[american_mama]

Thanks, Katie. I read the editor's letter, which as very clear and informative. I still think it's kind of whack for a company to ask for donations, but I certainly understand why they do. A lot of it is semantics: if they said "Join" or "Become a supporting member" along with their list of benfits, that makes sense to me. But to "donate" to a business just raises my hackles.

[Jo..]

Holy cow.

They were JUST a little on the liberal side for me (barely) but I am VERY sad to see them go. :(

[kijip]

I still think it's kind of whack for a company to ask for donations... But to "donate" to a business just raises my hackles.

I agree 100%.

[AnnieW625]

I read it in the library about a year ago and posted my thoughts about here. Here is the post: http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=352902&highlight=Mothering+Magazine
I really wish there was a parenting magazine with the free form style that Mothering had but covered everything.

[liamsmom]

I really wish there was a parenting magazine with the free form style that Mothering had but covered everything.

:yeahthat: I appreciated Mothering's alternative options. But I let my subscription run out last year and haven't missed it. For some reason Parenting magazine comes to my house and it's pretty ridiculous. I'm neither a mountain woman living in an electricity-free cabin nor am I Kourtney Kardashian. Is there a parenting magazine for me?

[KrisM]

:yeahthat: I appreciated Mothering's
alternative options. But I let my subscription run out last year and haven't missed it. For some reason Parenting magazine comes to my house and it's pretty ridiculous. I'm neither a mountain woman living in an electricity-free cabin nor am I Kourtney Kardashian. Is there a parenting magazine for me?

I tried a variety of magazines too. I find the bbb is better than any magazine.

[MamaSnoo]

I'm neither a mountain woman living in an electricity-free cabin nor am I Kourtney Kardashian. Is there a parenting magazine for me?

:hysterical: This is exactly how I feel!

[hellokitty]

Lol, what those of you have said about the extremes of parenting magazines is so true. They should start a magazine called, "informed parent." I think that would be something to appeal to those of us here at BBB.