The future of forth: an announcement: updated
Mon 01 Feb, 2010
This is the end. Possibly.
FORTH HAS now been publishing for 116 days, during which time we have brought you 337
378 stories. It’s time to think about the future – and, indeed, whether or not there is one.
forth was never intended as a profit-making venture but it has been difficult to keep the show on the road all the same. The editor’s income for January – none of which comes from forth – is a derisory sum for the 18 stories I have filed with newspapers, periodicals and web sites. In addition, traffic has hit a brick wall of 3,000 pageviews per day except in extraordinary circumstances and falls off a cliff if at least two new stories aren’t published twice daily.
As with all of the nonsense going on in Hillsborough, no decision is immediately imminent, though there is a timetable for the decision to be made. In the meantime, I would like to thank all of our readers and contributors, contributors who include, in no particular order:
Lenny Antonelli, journalist
Richard Stallman, computer programmer and activist
Noam Chomsky, psycholinguist and political activist
Jonathan Fallon, political consultant
Pauline Hadaway, arts director and writer
Robert Cassidy, political consultant
Stephen Rainey, philosopher
Brendan O’Neill, journalist
Caragh O’Donnell, artist and art administrator
James Heartfield, writer and lecturer
Gerard Casey, philosopher
Stephen Ginn, psychiatrist
Natalia Antonova, playwright and reporter
Rob Lyons, journalist and web developer
Owen Polley, journalist and politico
Niall Kitson, journalist
Daniel Jewesbury, artist and academic
Edel Horan, art writer
David Jackmanson, blogger, activist and journalist
Sheila Christofidies, art historian
Anna Morven, lawyer
Adam Maguire, journalist
Finbar Rosato, curator
Richard Dwyer, artist
Keith Anderson, journalist
Tommy McKearney, trade unionist and community worker
Tim Black, journalist
Michael Fitzpatrick, medical doctor
Patrick West, journalist and obituarist
Paddy Hoey, journalist and academic
Andrew Calcutt, journalist and academic
Phil Thane, journalist and writer
Edward Devoy, community worker
Stephen Kinsella, economist
Mark Ames, journalist
Domhnall Ó Cobhthaigh, former councillor
None of these people, or any of our other contributors, received a single penny for their hard work and, I believe anyway, that they all contributed to raising the tone – and stakes – of intellectual debate in Ireland. To them and everyone else who wrote, commented or contributed, I owe you a debt of gratitude.
To those who have contributed I would like to say this: you can be proud of your work. Despite its partisan left-libertarian and republican stance, forth attracted readers and writers from across the political spectrum, liberals and conservatives, socialists and unionists, republicans and more. Our readership was predominantly Irish but the magazine was also read regularly in Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada. Visitor logs include frequent entries from the British, Irish and Northern Irish civil services, the Dáil and Seanad, the Northern Ireland assembly, the Westminster parliament, the European parliament and courts, the US Congress, media outlets including the BBC, the Irish Times, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror and other high profile businesses and organisations. Stories covered by forth were followed-up and commented upon by the Guardian, the Independent (of London), the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Independent and others – and not always positively, which makes me feel even prouder for having ruffled a few feathers.
forth was never big enough to set the agenda but we did provide critical comment and analysis entirely absent elsewhere in Ireland. A quick glance at our coverage of Northern issues or economics alone will prove this. Only now are the established outlets catching-up with what we’ve been saying since the outset. forth may not have ever been important but, more important than that: we wuz right.
Expect an announcement within a fortnight.
Yours etc.,
Jason Walsh,
editor and publisher, forth
Update: This morning I did some number crunching. Here are the results.
forth‘s traffic is modest but more than respectable in Irish terms – and the trend has been upwards, week on week and month on month. Every week sees more visitors, more unique visitors and more returning visitors. Between October 8, 2009 (launch day) and the end of January, 2010 the site saw almost 93,000 pageviews, each representing someone reading an article.
forth is well-read and its readers are loyal: at the time of writing over 20 per cent of just the last 500 visitors to the site were people who have visited before.
On the other hand, if forth was a commercial operation of the most shoestring kind imaginable, its costs for the period would have been €54,127.52. Arguably it might have got by on half of that. Even as a not for profit outfit that has a longterm future it would need to have taken at least €3,000.
I am an incredibly stubborn and bloody-minded individual, but this does bear thinking about.
More later.
COMMENTS
Hi there,
As an RSS subscriber, I’m disappointed to read this on two levels. Firstly, I’d be sorry to see your interesting and thought provoking content disappear, but moreso because you seem to be considering giving up so easily.
Oh well!
Declan
By dh on 2010 01 30
I would have thought 3k hits a day after such a short time was amazing.
I’ll be sad to see it go if that’s what you decide.
By CanuckJacq on 2010 01 30
Sorry to hear the news, wish I could help. I am fighting for “True Democracy in the UK” and all I want are signatures on our petition and we are struggling with that so financial help has to be even harder.
All the best for the future jason.
Edward Devoy
By Edward Devoy on 2010 01 30
Would be unhappy to see you go. Am only getting the time to read every so-often, but enjoy it when I do.
By Jack on 2010 01 30
Thank you all. As I said, no decision has been taken and won’t be until I have exhausted all possible avenues for forth‘s survival.
By Jason Walsh on 2010 01 30
I should also say, the original plan called for an appraisal after three months anyway so it’s not so much a case of potentially just giving-up as much as facing the possible reality.
By Jason Walsh on 2010 01 30
Forth is fantastic. What can we do to help, Jason?
By James Heartfield on 2010 01 30
Not much James, I’m afraid. The figure for average daily pageviews for January so far is 2,918, with a peak of 24,342. Although it was never a commercial proposition it does need to pay for itself and, at the moment, it’s not.
I’ve published 45 stories of my own this month alone, 27 of them for forth, the rest for various newspapers and magazines. I can’t keep that kind of work-rate up indefinitely. The last two weeks have seen me focus on reporting for the papers and, as a result, the quality and quantity of material on forth slipped. But… a man has to eat.
There are a couple of other issues, too.
All that said, I’ve not taken the decision to shut down yet. I just floated it so that people would have some prior notice. If it does go, I would rather it went out gracefully than just stop on sunny day.
By Jason Walsh on 2010 01 30
It would be an absolute shame if the site ceased to exist. As you say, however, a man has to eat so good luck in making your decision, Jason: it’s been a more than excellent effort, thus far, and I have no doubt that you will make a success of whatever you turn your hand to.
Ádh mór ort.
By P Graham on 2010 01 30
I will be very disappointed if you let this just slip away now. The content is just too good. I sit at my computer grinning away at the eloquence of the work. The iron fist in a velvet glove.
By Jon on 2010 01 31
Hi Jason, just a quick Comment to agree with most of the sentiments expressed so far. Forth, if it goes, will be sorely missed - because it is just so damn well needed.
Anyway, where else could I go to bitch and pontificate?! 
Is there anything we can do to increase your traffic flow or promote Forth more generally?
By Séamas Ó Sionnaigh on 2010 01 31
We’d really miss Forth, who else is going to provide this quality incisive commentary on Irish affairs?
By Bernadette Whelan on 2010 01 31
Hi Jason,
I’ve now found the type of journalism I really enjoy reading - so I hope someone will come up with the necessary funds to keep Forth going.
By Sheila Christofides on 2010 01 31
By the way James, as a good, ahem, Hegelian you’ll know that money makes the world go around. That said, I’ve been able to rely on living labour rather than dead and am still witnessing the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. True story.
By Jason Walsh on 2010 01 31
P. Graham,
Go raibh maith agat. Ní mé a thabhairt suas go fóill.
Bernadette,
The Sunday Independent.
Sheila,
Thank you. I have no idea why forth is so popular in Australia but presume David Jackmanson has something to do with it.
Séamus,
Letters page of the Irish Times?
By Jason Walsh on 2010 01 31
Jason. I wanted to say again that I was delighted that you published my article about Audrey Nyanor and immigration control - and that I enjoy reading Forth. Maybe posting this notice about Forth’s possible end which generate helpful feedback on the publication so you can carry it forward. I hope you do not get burn-out and wish you good luck with whatever you decide is best for you and for the publication - you could definitely ask people you trust for whatever help is needed at this stage.
By Anna Morvern on 2010 01 31
Jason,
If David Jackmanson had something to do with spreading the word about forth, then good on him! But as you would know, there is a huge Irish presence here in Oz (my neighbours, for instance, are Feian’s). It goes right back to the first fleet to arrive here in 1788. I guess that a portion of this diaspora just wants some decent news from the old country… something not filtered through, or censored by, the Murdoch and Packer press!
By Sheila Christofides on 2010 02 01
Jason
That’s an impressive roster of contributors. Starving startups is par for the course -so wait 3 years. In the meantime, outclass and outshine.
Chris
By Christopher Byrne on 2010 02 01
Jason, I have only just come here in the last week - linked from teic.ie. I have not had the time to read all of the articles and I know I am coming to this late but…..it would be a damn shame if this site were to stop publishing the top quality that I have read here.
By Eoin O'Mahony on 2010 02 05
Jason,
I only recently came across ‘forth’, via the Sheila Christofides piece on Greenberg. I’m sorry to learn of the difficulties in keeping the site going. I’ve had a great time, while it lasted.
It seems to me (granted, I know very little about this) that even the most popular things one can find on the internet do not make money automatically. Either you need advertisers to foot the bill (which, I don’t mind, just as long as my ad-block software works!), or, as a non-profit model, you need a dedicated development staff-person to solicit sponsorship. A “Donate now” button just isn’t going to raise the funds you seek, since people are rightly wary of sending their credit-card info into the ether.
Good luck going forth, and if that isn’t feasible, thanks for the memories.
Ryan McCourt
ryanmccourt.ca
nesw.ca
commonsensegallery.com
By MC on 2010 02 07
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