I’ve boasted about Jacobin a bunch on this page. Beyond narcissism, it’s rooted in the feeling that our improbable success is symbolic of a wider intellectual shift. Qualify that with sober acknowledgement of the Left’s marginality, include token slaps in the direction of a certain mainstream commentator, strategically add “ youthful” profanity, and there you have it – a successful editor’s note.

But here’s where the attention we’ve gotten is all smoke – we have no institutional base and survive financially issue-to-issue. Jacobin’s existence is more precarious than publications with less reach and influence than us.

This is natural for a young magazine. But rather than bleed our subscriber base, it’s worth pointing out that beyond having a microscopic donor base, we don’t have any institutional subscribers. Other publications rely on a steady stream of renewals from universities to stay afloat. Jacobin has been successful leaning on just our young cohort of readers, but it leaves little financial cushion.