A beacon of liberal Christianity closes its doors
by JAMES STURDIVANT
The Other Side, a Germantown-based magazine whose message of social justice tied to faith influenced the rise of progressive Christianity in the '60s and '70s, has announced that it is ceasing publication after nearly 40 years.
In a letter to supporters, Beverly Dale, chair of The Other Side ministry's board of directors, said that economic realities forced the board to make the surprise decision to cease publication last month.
"You may be accustomed to hearing that The Other Side is in financial crisis. Over the years our organization has faced a number of such crises, and has survived primarily through the generosity of our donors. The situation facing us now is beyond such a solution," she wrote.
The magazine, founded by a white evangelical Baptist couple in Ohio in 1965 to urge other whites to reject racism, has long provided a forum for discussion of civil rights, peace, social justice, environmental and globalization issues.
The magazine took off among young Christians during the peace movement of the late 1960s, said Dee Dee Risher, the magazine's coeditor for the past 17 years. The name came from a desire to be a voice of "the other America" -- those most often ignored by the mainstream media.
"It was one of the first magazines in that era to do that," she said.
The Other Side, along with nearly all of its staff, moved from small-town Ohio to Germantown in 1973. "The group began to feel that an urban setting was where they wanted to be and live," Risher said. Germantown was at the time in a period of upheaval, with many whites fleeing the neighborhood, and, according to Risher, the staff decided to underscore some of their positions on racial issues by physically bucking that trend.
The magazine has maintained a reputation for editorial quality through the years, winning "best in class" awards five out of the last 10 years from the 300-member Associated Church Press Association. Recent contributors have included such well-known figures as Bell Hooks, Phillip Berrigan and Arthur Waskow.
Its reputation and reader base was, however, ultimately not enough to sustain the publication.
"It's been an independent magazine, without denominational backing -- we've relied on donations, and that's always a tenuous existence," Risher told the Local last week.
Risher described the magazine as "a very sellable product, but hard to market." Though subscription renewal rates stood at 70 to 75 percent, the publication has had trouble in recent years reaching new readers.
"In the last year, we did not get the income from subscriptions, and direct mail subscription pitches are expensive," she said. "When push came to shove, we weren't getting the new subscribers."
The magazine peaked at about 15,000 subscribers a decade ago, and had maintained a solid subscriber base of between 11,000 and 12,000 until it dropped precipitously over the last year to 7,000, according to figures provided by Risher.
"The primary culprit was not doing a direct mail for subscribers and not doing other marketing efforts to replace that hit," Risher said.
Risher said the board's decision to cease publication came after the magazine had already announced an upcoming 40th anniversary double issue, "so this last issue [Sept.-Oct.] that announced our next double issue is actually our last issue."
In her letter to supporters, Dale said that mounting debts necessitated the sudden closing. The board of directors voted to sell the organization's major asset, a building at 300 W. Apsley St., in order to pay off debts and assist staff. Current subscribers will have their subscription "fulfilled by a publication yet to be determined."
Joy Bergey, director of the Chestnut Hill-based Center for the Celebration of Creation and a past contributor, lamented the magazine's folding.
"It's certainly a hole that I'm going to miss. There are not a lot of other voices around writing from that perspective. We need more, not fewer," she said. "I think that it was very insightful work into how Christian scripture could support those of us who do justice work on a regular basis.
"I think that it is particularly important that the progressive voice of Christianity be expressed at this point in the nation's history. I'm unhappy with the way that so much of Christian thought has been going in this country," Bergey said.
The board has yet to make a decision on the organization's future, saying only that they will attempt to "continue the ministry" in some form, possibly by maintaining some version of the magazine on the Internet.
In a statement to contributors and supporters, Risher struck a hopeful and celebratory tone about the magazine's 40-year run.
"Most of the urgent issues of justice the magazine took on over decades, once unaddressed or discussed only on the margins of the faith community, are now being engaged in a broader way, both within the church and in the broader society. It is a great joy to have been one of the vehicles that God has used to foster this arc toward justice and hope," she wrote.
