Last week a friend asked why we still bother printing anything. This is the long answer, written on the back of a toner invoice.
A feed is designed to forget you. Paper is designed to be kept. When you hand someone a zine, you are giving them an object that will sit on a shelf for years, get lent to a friend, and turn up in a box when they move house.
Paper doesn't refresh
- Print fifty copies before you post a single link
- Leave a stack at the library and the laundromat
- Put a mailing address in the colophon
- Trade, don't just sell
Every platform promises reach and then rents it back to you. A copier gives you reach at eight cents a page, and the only terms of service are the ones taped to the side of the machine.
The feed forgets. The shoebox remembers.
Nobody owns your stapler
None of this means the internet is the enemy. It means the internet is a great place to tell people where the zines are, and a terrible place to keep them.
Print nights are pay-what-you-can. The jar covers toner and paper most months, and when it doesn't, we hold a swap and sell the duplicates from the lending shelf.
We keep a guest book by the door. Some people write their name, some write a poem, and one person drew the entire floor plan of the shop from memory. It is the best zine we have never printed.
If you are reading this at the collective, the good scissors are in the drawer marked "do not take the good scissors". Please do not take the good scissors.
A note on paper: we buy recycled 80gsm by the box and it runs through every machine we own. Heavier stock is lovely for covers, but it will jam the old copier if you try to feed it more than ten sheets at a time.
