A remarkable article from the estimable web journal The Millions on the economics of literary magazines. Some of these online literary journals are among the few places online where the comments sections don’t run to hateful screed, and there is some very earnest and thoughtful reaction here to the issues raised by the article’s writer, regarding how more literary magazines might be able to pay their contributors. What there isn’t here (except in a few instances) is much insight into the actual economic considerations at work in a field where the demand to consume the product is so much less than the impetus to produce the product. Relatively simple forces are at work here.
