{"id":2119,"date":"2014-03-25T14:48:59","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T14:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/archives\/2014\/03\/25\/for-all-its-success-the-london-review-of-books\/"},"modified":"2015-01-04T17:06:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-04T16:06:50","slug":"for-all-its-success-the-london-review-of-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/archives\/2014\/03\/25\/for-all-its-success-the-london-review-of-books\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
For all its success, the London Review of Books struggles to make money. It owes its continued existence to the generosity of Wilmers herself, who regularly siphons in cash from a family trust fund. [\u2026] The family money means the LRB never has to worry about paying back its loans \u2013 in January 2010, the magazine was estimated to be \u00a327m in debt to the trust. And yet it still manages to pay its writers at a base-rate of 30p a word (rising by a considerable margin if the article is longer than average). [\u2026] Is it sustainable, I ask the LRB\u2019s publisher, Nicholas Spice? He looks vaguely shocked at the suggestion. \u201cOh no, it\u2019s not sustainable in financial terms,\u201d he says. Spice has a pleasantly straightforward manner and a faintly military demeanour. He is the kind of man you suspect would be incapable of telling a lie, even though sometimes he probably should. \u201cIt loses a lot of money,\u201d he continues cheerfully. \u201cThe most important thing is that it has always had very generous support from its shareholders. And we\u2019ve had the same shareholders since 1980, which is very unusual \u2013 I should think unprecedented \u2013 for a literary publication or arts organisation. The great thing is that we have been able to invest in creating a market for a very good editorial product.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n

Is the LRB the best magazine in the world? | Books | The Observer<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Once again, an example of how the market will not always provide. I for one am thankful people are willing to \u201cwaste\u201d money on a publication like the LRB.<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all its success, the London Review of Books struggles to make money. It owes its continued existence to the generosity of Wilmers herself, who regularly siphons in cash from a family trust fund. [\u2026] The family money means the LRB never has to worry about paying back its loans \u2013 in January 2010, the … Continue reading <\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[983],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-tumblr","post_format-post-format-quote"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leapfrog.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}