The Skinny was forced to cease publication during lockdown. We are looking for your help to restart publishing in print and online.
by The Skinny in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Once we pass our target we will be able to put additional money raised into making more magazines. Your donations will allow us to secure The Skinny's future for longer, print further monthly editions and continue to pay our contributors.
Since 2005, we’ve published 175 completely free monthly magazines. We’ve covered countless bands, exhibitions, book and film releases, festivals, comedy nights and spoken word events in our print, online and social media coverage. We’ve put on live events, club nights, art exhibitions, film competitions and festivals. We’ve worked with hundreds if not thousands of emerging writers, photographers and illustrators whose work now graces some of the biggest publications in the country.
We’ve celebrated creativity in all its forms, and supported the independent, grassroots artists and venues who make Scotland great. And we’ve done all that as an independent business; we aren’t part of a giant media conglomerate, there aren’t any corporate bosses telling us who we can or can’t cover.
The coronavirus pandemic has taken a devastating toll on the independent businesses, arts venues and companies who support The Skinny as advertisers, collaborators and stockists. Without them, there is no independent culture. And it’s the money from their advertising that allows us to make The Skinny the comprehensive, independent, widely-available and completely free magazine that it is.
This isn’t a big, fancy operation: it’s a small group of dedicated, hard-working and knowledgeable people trying their best to bring you a snapshot of Scottish culture every month. We’ve improvised our way through financial challenges too many to count, never missing a month from founding in October 2005 until April 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to batten down the hatches, using the furlough scheme to protect the jobs of our employees.
So we need your help.
We’re looking to raise the funds needed to bring back the magazine – to pay our editorial and sales staff at a time when our usual sources of revenue have dried up, but while our mission of celebrating the incredible creativity that exists across Scotland and beyond is more important than ever. Whatever you can send our way to help us resume publishing in print and online will be enormously appreciated, and will enable us to get back to documenting and discussing Scotland’s vibrant cultural scenes.
The money raised will go towards paying our staff, freelancers and illustrators, funding printing and distribution of the physical magazine plus our continuing online coverage, keeping it free for everyone who wants and ensuring that our coverage of the Scottish cultural scene continues into the future.
Please give whatever you can, and help protect this indispensable resource that we’ve quite literally put our blood, sweat and tears into. Our team is bursting with ideas for future projects to share with you – your contribution will help us make them real. And each contributor will be credited and thanked in our first issue back – see your name in print!
The Skinny team
Photography by Fiona Hunter and Rachael Hood