Antigravity magazine struggling to make ends meet
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Antigravity is staring down the possibility of closing this year, editors say.
Why it matters: The monthly magazine is one of New Orleans' few remaining alternative publications, and its coverage includes perhaps the most thorough and consistent voting guides in the city.
What they're saying: "Our story is the story of New Orleans currently," Antigravity editor and publisher Dan Fox tells Axios New Orleans. "Our income is like 99% advertiser-based."
- But that means the publication is also subject to the cyclical summer slump, which has spurred restaurants and other venues to close during a slow season that feels slower and bounces back less vigorously every year.
- "A lot of [businesses] are operating on fumes, so when they look at things like advertising, that's one of the first things to go," Fox says.
State of play: Fox expects Antigravity to put out issues in August and September and "hopefully" October.
- If Antigravity were on a road trip, Fox is looking at a gas tank with between one-eighth and one-fourth left in it, he says. "It's time to start looking for a way to fuel up; otherwise, we're going to die on the side of the road."
The big picture: Like everywhere else in the U.S., New Orleans' media landscape has shifted drastically as free online content supplanted paid subscriptions and advertising dollars that once fueled high-profit margins now shrivel on the vine.
- Some of New Orleans' alternative publications have struggled, too
- Offbeat's ownership has made no mystery of its financial struggles, and other publications, like The Lens and Verite, rely on nonprofit models to sustain themselves.
- Gambit ended up under the umbrella of Georges Enterprises a year before the company bought The Times-Picayune in 2019.
Zoom in: Antigravity has published for about 21 years, Fox says, with monthly issues that focus on social justice and politics, local artists, food and reviews, with original comics and photography.
- A photo issue that's arrived every August for the past dozen years is a local favorite.
- So, too, are Antigravity's "cynical, progressive" voter guides, which are required reading for many during election season.
Yes, but: It costs real money to create, even for a publication that Fox says works as leanly as possible.
- The voter guides alone take weeks of prep. For New Orleans' upcoming mayoral election, Antigravity is likely the only publication to commit to full profiles on each of the race's 14 candidates, in addition to explainers for everything else down ballot.
- Donations help support some of that work, but the publication refuses political ads for the project.
- "One of the reasons for the guide is to map power, so some long-shot who the legacy media outlets aren't going to give ink to, we're going to [write about] because they might show up in the future," Fox says.
What's next: A column from senior editor Holly Devon in Antigravity's latest issue spurred interest in new subscriptions, Fox says, but what the publication really needs is new ad dollars.
- "Antigravity is a love letter to New Orleans every month," says Fox, a native of the city. "I would hate to see New Orleans without it."