Youth Today – the Newspaper on Youth Work began publishing in September 1992. Our survival has always been in doubt, our funding always precarious, our pugnacious commitment to independent journalism for youth workers never wavering. Much of our success is due to the legacy of our founding editor, the late Bill Howard, whose work has been carried on by our current staff.
Now 10 years, 76 on-time editions and 4 million copies later, many take Youth Today’s arrival 10 times a year as a given. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Youth Today does for far too many people – give, without charge.
In order to thrive we need a paid circulation four times larger than our current 12,500. Will the youth service field support arms-length reporting through subscriptions, job ads and other advertising? After 10 years, the jury is still out.
Meanwhile, we’re betting that our steadily improving website (www.youthtoday.org) and other changes in our marketing and dissemination efforts will grow our paid circulation. Youth Today’s October issue will include the premiere issue of The Youth Today Review of Books, a 16-page, twice-per-year separate section of Youth Today. Currently, there is no nationally accessible book-review publication aimed at those who work within the children and youth fields. We hope to fill that gap.
Youth Today would never have published a single issue without foundation support. Over the past decade 18 foundations have contributed more than $3 million to subsidize Youth Today’s expenses. Our first and still largest donor is the Ford Foundation.
Other constant underwriters include the E.M. Kauffman, C.S. Mott, Pinkerton, A. E. Casey, George Gund and The California Wellness foundations. More recent funders include the Open Society Institute, Surdna, W.T. Grant and Packard foundations.
As in previous years, we urge readers who are not paid subscribers (that designation is at the top of the address label on the back page) to order a paid subscription. Over the past two years some 20,000 nonpaid subscribers have been dropped from our mailing list. We are now offering a much-reduced rate for bulk subscriptions. Contact us through rpottle@youthtoday.org for details.
Every subscription to Youth Today is an investment in independent reporting on the youth service field.
