WSW EDITORIAL
For the past two years, the What She Wants Collective has rejoiced and agonized over the monthly trial of publishing a women's newspaper that informs, challenges, and most importantly, remains free of commercial influence and restraint. If feminism means developing a different conception and use of power, we have managed to avoid relying on financial rewards, the net effect of which is to appease oppressed groups and channel their complaints in an endless maze of token, reformist gestures. By so doing we have also evaded the very basic issue of power and commerce, and how they ultimately make. the difference between the success and demise of a women's publication like WSW.
Since our last issue we have learned that two ma-
Features
Women and Alcoholism. .
jor, urban feminist newspapers have, each in its own way, taken a financial plunge. New York City's Majority Report, the second oldest continuous women's newspaper in the U.S., has sunk irretrievably into $30,000 debt. According to off our backs, Majority Report's editor Karen Barrett has announced the paper's forthcoming dissolution: "I find it hard to believe she [Majority Report] is gone, after all these years of exciting first-page stories, peculiar inside humor, and idiosyncratic politics....New York will miss her, she has a New Yorkish more critical than thou way about her." Barrett explained that many factors plagued the future of Majority Report, not the least of which were eviction by their landlord, the lack of skilled women to produce the paper at little or
CONTENTS
12
6
back cover
News
Cleveland Women's Groups.. Clio's Musings,,
Local
Find It Fastest..
Take Back the Night August 3!. Alternative Energy Fair....
3
Health....
5
Letters to WSW....
2
State and National
Music/Reviews.
6-7
Cincinnati Protest for Choice...
Ohio Anti-Abortion Amendment.
3
Viewpoint....
10
Supreme Court Decicion on Parental Consent.
4
What's Happening.
15
Bits & Pieces..
7
Classified Ads..
14
no salary, and an inadequate ad policy: "People don't realize that we can't confine our advertising to nice little women's bookstores. Unfortunate as it may be, we have to go out and get people like Clairol to advertise in our paper."
Sojourner, the feminist publication from Cambridge, Mass., also dove into precarious money matters but re-emerged a new sort of bird with a different set of feathers. According to the July issue of Ms., Sojourner (the original voice of women students and employees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has begun the "controversial move from a volunteer-run, collective-style enterprise into a hard-nosed, profit-making venture." Sojourner has reincorporated, formed a board of directors, sold $20,000 worth of stock to shareholders, invested the returns in equipment and salaries, and hired a "silver-tongued" advertising manager, who doubled the paper's ad income in her first month. The change was absolutely necessary. According to founder and editor Allison Platt, "We made the structure of the paper real clear. The more you work, the more input you have. [Volunteers] want to do the editing, but they're never around to take out the garbage. It was time for us to start thinking differently-not that we were going to do this someday, but now."
Both courses of action are dramatic. In time we will witness the results of these changes wrought by the pressures of the marketplace. And here we are,
What She Wants
What She Wants goes to production in the middle of the month. Copy should be submitted the first week of the month so that we can discuss it and edit collectively at our editorial meetings. Contact us for specific deadlines. Please print or type articles. Mail material to WSW, P. O. Box 18465, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118.
WHAT SHE WANTS IS:
A MONTHLY NEWS JOURNAL PRODUCED FOR ALI, WOMEN. We always like input from our readers in the form of articles, personal experiences, poetry, art, announcements, and letters. We welcome women who are willing to help us in specific areas of the paper (writing, lay-out, advertising, distribution, publicity, etc.) and/or who are interested in our collective.
WHAT SHE WANTS ADVOCATES:
...equal and civil rights.
...the right to earnings based on our need, merit, and interest ...access to job training, salaries, and promotions we choose
...the right to organize in unions and coalitions to advance our cause the right to decent health care and health information
...the right to sale, effective birth control and to sale, legal abortions .....the right to accept or reject motherhood
...the right to choose and express sexual preference without harassment ...access to quality education and freedom from prejudice in learning materials
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
A one-year subscription to WSW includes
12 regular monthly issues
Individual
——
$6.00
Contributing $15.00
Sustaining $25.00
Non-Profit Org. $10.00
For Profit Org.
——
$15.00
DISTRIBUTION OUTLETS:
East: Coventry Books, Food Communities, Food Project, Genesis, Hemming & Hulbert Booksellers Central: Barnes & Noble, Publix Book Mart, Rape Crisis Center, WomenSpace West: Six Steps Down, Tish's Shoe Repair & Emporium Akron: Nature's Way
WE ARE:
Carol Epstein, Linda Jane, Marycatherine Krause Gail Powers, Barb Reusch, Mary Walsh
FRIENDS OF THIS ISSUE:
Deb Adler, Terry Bullen, Janet Century, Paula Copestick, Jesse Epstein,
Dianne Fishman, Mim Goloboff, Maryhelen Hibben, Cheryl Jensen, Christine Link, Randi Powers, Gene Richmond, Judie Shaffer, Sara Singer, Jan (Dickey) Spring, Gale Stone
copyright
10/9
hands covered with ink and glue, stomachs growling for something to eat, heads bobbing with each new subscription that comes in and momentarily answers the inevitable question: "Where will we get the cash for the next printing?" What She Wants gains at least 30 new subscribers every month. We also receive calls from volunteers who think they might like to try working on such a creative venture. But somehow, like the newly-printed Susan B. Anthony coin, it isn't enough—at least not enough to assure the success of this newspaper. We have heard that we're a "'remote but dedicated" group of women, that a woman has to force her way into the collective to be able to work with us. We've winced at rumors that our content remains limited and that our coverage should extend to the needs and concerns of other women. And finally, we've learned that many have never heard of WSW. We are aware of how inach more we could be do ing and how much more time, money and effort it would require.
If you want to keep What She Wants, keep, her in mind. The next time you call us, make sure you get to that meeting; the next time you shop at a worthwhile store, bring your newspaper along and show her off; and this time when you read her, subscribe.
-Carol Epstein
July, 1979/What She Wants/Page 1