3 issues in, Latterly Magazine hits a hurdle that could put it out of business
Despite a fast start with press from Venture Beat and Columbia Journalism Review, and raising more than $12,000 on Kickstarter, Latterly Magazine could go out of business, said editor and co-founder Ben Wolford.
In a post published early Wednesday, Wolford pleaded with users to re-subscribe and fast, saying:
Because of a technical thing, every single person who subscribed before Jan. 23 will have to re-subscribe manually when their subscription expires. If no one does (only a handful have so far), we’ll probably go out of business.
The snafu is due to a change in subscriber management systems, Wolford said, and happens only days after the beginning of partnerships with Newsweek and the French magazine Ulyces.
Latterly displays no ads. Instead readers are asked to pay $3 an issue.
The fourth issue of the longform monthly magazine is due out Feb. 17 or 18, Wolford told Through the Cracks. The Latterly app is expected to make its debut for iPhone users later this month.
No matter what happens, even if none of the subscribers returned, the site has enough money on hand to make it to June, he said.
Before the post about subscriptions was published on Latterly, Wolford wrote a frank article published Tuesday on Medium. The piece takes a naked look at how Latterly came to be and the lessons he and his wife Christina Asencio learned jumping off the news startup cliff.
