SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Spring Issue of 2600 Released - Important News :

[For those who may be unfamiliar: 2600: The Hacker Quarterly "is an American seasonal publication of technical information and articles [...] on a variety of subjects including hacking, telephone switching systems, Internet protocols and services, as well as general news concerning the computer 'underground.'" --Ed.]

It gets worse. Our previous issue (the one still on stands) can't be sold to Barnes and Noble "curbside pickup" customers even though most everything else in their stores can be. Why? It's their "policy" that magazines can't be sold this way and that policy can't be changed despite the current circumstances. It makes no sense at all to us. Our issues are right there in the store yet they can't be sold to customers.

Rather than working out options where we might have a chance at survival, we're being told that we have to figure out what to do with all these issues or pay a penalty for not shipping them. We find ourselves in the middle of a Kafka novel where everything is stacked against the publisher because that's just how it is.

We've seen injustices before where distributors have gone out of business without paying us, sometimes simply changing their name and continuing to make millions while we don't get a dime. But this time it's different. This time what's happening affects all of us, and what we were hoping we'd see was a sense of community where we all supported one another and helped everyone get through this terrible crisis. That most certainly hasn't been the case in the publishing world.

We honestly don't know if we'll be able to publish another issue. We intend to try once we know if there's a plan or any sort of relief we can take advantage of. We haven't seen much encouragement from landlords, banks, and insurance companies who can't help and all insist on getting paid in full and on time. Meanwhile, those entities owing us checks say they can't pay us at all. Something has to give.