The Paper Trail
No one invested...they went years without making a profit. Was this publishing duo's path pigheaded or visionary?
Few inhabitants of mainstream USA expressed interest in anything
"indie" before 1996, when Oscar-winning films like
Fargo and Shine engaged audiences with small budgets
and little-known actors. Younger consumers discovered indie in the
early '90s, when the once-underground "grunge"
aesthetic infiltrated mass-market music, film and fashion. But
years before anyone was watching obscure movies, and before kids
deemed flannel-wearing fashionable, "grandma and granddaddy of
indie" Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits were pointing
people in the direction of hip as publishers and editors of
Paper magazine. Never heard of Paper (launched 16
years ago) or Papermag.com (live in 1994) or Paper Publishing
Co.'s 1999 book From AbFab to Zen: Paper's Guide to Pop
Culture? That's probably because Hastreiter and Hershkovits
have always run their New York City company on a shoestring and
accepted little investment. But no one's ever told them what to
do, either. And they like it that way. The last time Hastreiter, 48, and Hershkovits, 52, answered to
anyone was in 1981, right before former employer The Soho Weekly
News, a Village Voice-esqe publication unique in its
style coverage, folded after its owners failed to focus on the
downtown scene about to erupt. "They were English and
didn't really understand New York City," says Hastreiter.
"They just couldn't deal with punk-rocker types with green
hair working for them." Shocked by The Weekly's untimely departure,
Hastreiter and Hershkovits, former style editor and associate
managing editor, respectively, decided to fill the void by starting
their own weekly publication. Their style and ideal audience were
clearly outlined. But having no start-up experience made it a
challenge. They did know having a style section would get
advertising. "All that existed in those days were brainless
style magazines that got all the fashion ads, or things that were
all content and no style, like The Village Voice, that would
get local ads but no fashion ads because they didn't look
good," says Hastreiter. Content Continues Below
With boutiques and restaurants appearing around SoHo, an offbeat
neigh-borhood where artists lived in the '70s, and sensing
their friends (like fashion designer Vivienne Westwood; her
husband, former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren; and artists
Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf), were on the verge of stardom,
Hastreiter and Hershkovits were confident a print publication
meshing style, music and politics would be a green light not only
for advertisers, but also investors. They looked for money, but
without a proven concept, all they saw were bad offers—like
capital in exchange for control of the company. "David and I
just saw [in watching The Weekly's demise] that the
people with the power and money didn't understand they had the
best magazine in a market just beginning to explode," says
Hastreiter. "We knew the market exactly and didn't want to
give away our idea just to become employees and get fired."
Investors even dangled money in front of the two for months, only
to pull out at the last minute. It only inspired them.
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