The April 20, 2009 issue of The American Conservative, a biweekly magazine whose founding editors were Patrick Buchanan and Taki Theodoracopulos, carried the announcement that its next issue would be its last. Explaining that the “economic crisis is exacting a toll on the publishing world,” the message from its editors to “Dear Subscribers” ruefully noted that “The American Conservative has not been spared” from the effects of the nation’s financial downturn.
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Launched only eight years ago, The American Conservative has always drawn its operating revenue from unnamed backers. Its pages have carried virtually no advertising, an absolutely critical source of financial muscle in the publishing world. Issue after issue did offer a generally appealing stream of conservative opinion from Buchanan and Taki, along with worthy contributions from such right-wing notables as Doug Bandow, James Bovard, Andrew Bacevich, Paul Gottfried, Scott McConnell, Justin Raimondo, and Thomas Woods. Published from a northern Virginia office not far from the White House and Capitol Hill, the magazine’s regular fare included welcome attacks on the neoconservatives who continue to dominate the Republican Party.
Not mentioned in the announcement of its imminent demise was any reference to the changing attitude of the American public about serious reading as well as the growing popularity of the Internet as a news source. Magazines are not the only victim of this development; big-city newspapers have been hit very hard as well. All across the nation, daily newspapers and popular news magazines have suffered steep declines in readership and advertising. Most have created an Internet presence, hoping to attract the growing numbers who are not reading print publications and in many cases won’t read more than online headlines and short summaries of events.
Though it will no longer publish a magazine, The American Conservative will continue to exist via its “revamped website.”
