FOR THE LOVE OF A MAGAZINE.

• Author: Lueders, Bill
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE

The other day, I spoke to a class of about three dozen students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I asked who among them subscribed to a print magazine, any magazine. One hand went up, hesitantly.

As someone who subscribes to more than a dozen periodicals, from weekly to quarterly, I found this hard to grasp. Who doesn't love the feel of a magazine in their hands, begging to be opened and read? Magazines have rich histories, with offerings that go back decades: Shouts & Murmurs (The New Yorker), Harpers Index (Harper's), and No Comment (The Progressive), to name a few. They hold deeper traditions as well, such as The Progressive's long-standing opposition to war and militarism and its commitment to free speech.

For the last seven years, I have made my home at The Progressive, serving as its editor for the past five years. It has been an honor to work with so many talented and committed writers, as well as my topnotch colleagues on staff, to produce journalism that aspires to do nothing less than change the world, one mind at a time.

Though I might be biased, The Progressive is, I believe, the best little political magazine in America. Our small staff produces quality copy for the magazine, website, and two projects: Public Schools Advocate, which goes to bat for these local institutions, and Progressive Perspectives, which produces op-eds for use by newspapers and websites across the country. I am proud of the work that we have done, and that my colleagues will continue to do, as I prepare to move on to another phase of my life. This is my last issue as editor.

Recently, we gathered staff together for lunch and to talk about The Progressive. You can see us in the photo on this page, minus our newly minted Editorial Assistant Nora-Kathleen Berryhill, who joined us for lunch but had to leave before the photo was snapped. (My wife, Linda, who took the picture, says my eyes were closed in every photo, which is probably an apt metaphor as I head into an uncertain future.)

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