fishwrap magazine
Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 8:44PM 
I started the magazine, fishwrap, a couple months after moving to New York in the summer of 1993 to pursue a full time writing career. I had had some interviews that didn't go too well, so I thought it would be a good idea to publish a magazine that made fun of and mocked the entire industry I was trying to get a job with. I've always said that fishwrap was me biting the hand that refused to feed me.
It started out as a twelve page, black and white fanzine that ridiculed the world of mainstream media. I then mailed it to the very people I was making fun of. Some writers and editors got it and some didn't. Fishwrap got its first piece of press in a November '94 issue of Sassy. I really made fun of Sassy and they thought it was hilarious and made us the "zine of the month." That resulted in a lot of teenaged girls subscribing and fishwrap got a distribution deal with BigTop publishing (thanks Tom and LN!) I was back in the magazine business! And losing money as always.
To fund my fishwrap habit, I got a night job at a printing place and the owner generously let me output the film for the magazine for free (thanks Joe!)
The magazine got a cult following and in addition to Sassy, fishwrap was written about in Spin magazine, Men's Journal, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, New York Press, Peoria Journal Star, New York Daily News and the New York Post among others.
From 1993 to 2000, I put out about 15 issues of fishwrap and was so burned out and low on dough that I ceased publication and took a nap for about a year.
Reader Comments (3)
If you sell back issues of fishwrap- don't forget to send me my 10%
FW link invalid
I took that section down, ahole. Thanks for pointing out the invalid link, it's gone now.