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What's something worth that you get for free? A friend suggested, "Charge $20 per issue. If you charge people a lot, they.ll value it more. Maybe you should charge $50." There's something true about that. This question bothers me. Especially since we've moved to a pay-it-forward model. How can it be valued if no money is charged? Well, it's not free, exactly. Because someone has paid already. What you're receiving has been paid for by others.both in dollars and effort. We don't sell ads, either. Nor are we supported by grants. Our support comes entirely from readers. We produce the magazine in the spirit of a gift. It's like art itself, that way. So how do you value a gift? --Richard Whittaker, editor, works & conversations |
Or put it this way: We live in a transactional time, in an if-then culture deeply accustomed to the conditional. The gift economy then, is a whisper in the ear of the collective, a whisper insisting against the odds that there's another way of encountering this world and each other: generosity. To us that's what it's really about, because whenever we give or receive unconditionally, we participate in a quiet, no-strings revolution where each act serves as its own catalyst, and as a movement from isolation to community, from scarcity to abundance. That's the spirit in which works & conversations is offered. There is no subscription fee for this magazine, and it comes to you through an invisible circle of giving. Thank you for your readership. --CharityFocus.org Team |
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