"NSFWCorp is the future of journalism with jokes, which basically means we tell you what's going on in the world in a way that makes you actually give a fuck about what's going on in the world. Everybody is building an app that is making news smaller and smaller and smaller. What we're trying to do is make news big again. And what that means is we're hiring really, really good journalists -- supernaturally good journalists -- and sending them out into the world to find really big stories. And then we're making the job even harder by insisting that when they come back, they make those stories funny."
Paul Carr, editor in chief, nsfwcorp (from the NSFWCorp Movie)
NSFWCorp is a relatively new journalism shop testing the future of the business with new monetary solutions. Slugging it out in Las Vegas, these guys have hired great writers, encouraged travel budgets, afforded fact checkers, and never forget their editors. They hope by generating quality content and charging money (!) for their efforts, NSFWCorp will operate a sustainable business in an increasingly hostile world for news and journalism.
While NSFWCorp has been digital-only since I've joined, they've recently sold out of their new print run of an ancillary magazine being released March 25th. That's right -- they have the balls to publish a printed product in 2013. The plan calls for a monthly periodical that rides alongside digital content, featuring two 10-12 thousand word "A-side" stories sandwiching a set of unique interior features. (It's been revealed that the first featured story is called “Iraqipedia”, an illustrated A-Z guide to the war in Iraq.) Their rationale? "Not only does print provide a far better experience for reading long form but it also offers true platform agnosticism (available to anyone with v1 of “eyes”) and for a variety of complicated human reasons, it improves data retention and adds more credibility and heft to serious reporting." How are they going to sustain such a bold initiative when they only make three bucks a month for their online journalism from memberS? Charge a few bills more: $7/month for both the print and digital editions whilst keeping the option for digital-only at $3/month.
The print edition's first issue, limited to 5,000 copies, hasn't been without hurdles, though. The outfit planned on distributing 1,000 issues in Vegas, but the distributers outright banned it from sale. I don't know what kind of inane bullshit is fueling this publishing doctrine, but it sounds as if distributers are the ones adding gasoline the burning hand that feeds them. It sounds like NSFWCorp will offer a backup eBook in any event, but my fingers are tingling for something physical after having taken my reading habits into the pixel age.
If you're interested in perusing NSFWCorp's back-catalog of essays before subscribing, a few recommendations: