Utne Reader Faces Crisis Of Identity As It Turns 10

MINNEAPOLIS - If we really could hear people thinking, one would hear a collective hum when walking the halls at Utne Reader magazine.

The sound would result from a convergence of minds thinking and obsessing.

And as one passed the office of the magazine's founder Eric Utne, 47, the din would become noticeably louder.

Thinking and obsessing - that's Utne's trademark phrase.

Ask anyone on the staff, "So, what have you been thinking and obsessing about lately?" and the first reaction is likely to be a good-natured laugh, followed by, "Oh, you must have been talking to Eric."

Put the question to Utne and he'll tell you he has been thinking about the future of the magazine, which this year is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Surviving a decade is cause for celebration in any business, and even more so in the crowded and competitive field of consumer magazines.

And the Utne Reader, a magazine founded as an alternative Reader's Digest for the baby boom generation, certainly has a lot to celebrate. What began as a small newsletter 10 years ago has grown into a thick, sophisticated and graphically enticing magazine.

Norwegian for "far out"

Its name - as well as its publisher's - rhymes with chutney and is Norwegian for "far out," says Utne, a St. Paul native and the son of Norwegian immigrants.

The Reader collects articles that first appeared in other publications, from such well-known periodicals as the Village Voice, Atlantic Monthly and People to dozens of special-interest journals that focus on everything from politics to science and all subjects in between.

Every year the Reader, which bills itself as the "best of the alternative press," breaks its own record for increases in circulation, growing from 50,000 seven years ago to more than 350,000 in 1993. At the same time, its advertising, practically nonexistent 10 years ago, has exploded to more than 50 pages an issue. It has been operating in the black since 1991.

The magazine's subscribers are educated, affluent and well-traveled - just the kind of readers advertisers seek out.

So with all this success, why are the folks at Utne worried?

It's because, as the magazine enters its 10th year, it finds itself facing a very middle-class dilemma: midlife crisis.

Having made it through those crucial early years, Utne wonders whether his progeny will survive another 10. "We're asking ourselves that question and, frankly, we don't know," he said. "It's an interesting time for us."

One concern is that stories and topics once deemed too radical or risque for the mainstream press - the very material that gave the Utne Reader its edge - today appear in just about any newspaper or magazine a reader picks up.

"Many of the writers, cartoonists, illustrators and photographers who used to be at home only in the alternative press can now be found in Newsweek and Time," explained Utne.

Become too mainstream?

Another concern, ironically, is a fear that Utne itself will get too mainstream as it tries to appeal to the middle-aged tastes of its readers.

The magazine's survival and its stellar success are no small accomplishments, said Samir Husni, assistant professor of magazine journalism at the University of Mississippi. Each year he compiles a list of the new magazines on the market, "Samir Husni's Guide to New Consumer Magazines."

Since 1950 the number of magazines published in the U.S. has grown from fewer than 7,000 to nearly 11,000, according to the Gale Directory of Publications, which tracks magazine circulation nationwide.

Last year, said Husni, there were 789 magazines launched, an increase of 112 from the previous year.

About half of those new magazines will fail by the end of their first year, Husni said. And for every 10 that make it through that crucial first year, only three will ultimately survive.

The Utne magazine that exists today is not what founder Utne originally had in mind. He planned on publishing a newsletter summarizing articles on various topics.

"After four issues of the newsletter, it became clear that people didn't want abstracts, they wanted articles," Utne said.

"At the time I thought I was going to publish a magazine called American Almanac and it would be like the Esquire Magazine of the 1930s or the Harper's of the 1960s - a great general interest magazine about ideas mixed with wonderful writing."

He gave up that idea when he realized it would take too long and too much money to produce. And there was another reason.

"I realized that there were already too many (magazines) out there to keep up with . . . to try to digest what was already there."

And, he said, "That little word, `digest,' set off a light bulb in my brain, and I thought, hmm, maybe it's time to have a Reader's Digest for my generation, the baby boom generation."

So in the fall of 1984, with $150,000 in financial backing from eight investors, most of them friends, a revamped, magazine version of Utne Reader made its debut. And, if timing is indeed everything, Utne Reader hit pay dirt.

This, more than anything, has been the biggest contributor to the magazine's success, said Utne.

Thoughtful journalism

"I think we're a phenomenon of the times," he says. The magazine "is something that promises to save people time and money and keep them informed about things that matter to them. And in an era when there is so much celebrity journalism and pop-culture pap, something that tries to present thoughtful journalism but in an engaging way has to find its own readership."

Magazine covers from the past decade reflect the Reader's themes: "Greening the Earth," "Soviets and Americans: Searching for Common Ground," "Punk America: The Politics of the Children of the Children of the Sixties," "Men and Women: Can We Get Along - Should We Even Try."

Its March/April 1991 issue on "Salons: How to revive the endangered art of conversation and start a revolution in your living room," sparked the birth of conversation groups around the country. The magazine has since founded a nonprofit organization called the Neighborhood Salon Association.

Utne has done all this without discounting its subscription or advertising prices. The bimonthly magazine has never cut its $18-a-year subscription price, and ad rates have followed the circulation numbers - steadily upward. Its staff has increased over the years to 27 full-time employees from two.

Its offices are located in the shadow of downtown Minneapolis, just above one of the city's hippest restaurants, the Loring Park Cafe.

It recently expanded its operation to take up the entire third floor of the building. The heart of the operation is the library, a cozy, well-lit room with shiny hardwood bookcases. But instead of books, these shelves are packed with magazines, more than 2,000.

Utne's editors, with the assistance of 10 college interns, glean the magazines every month for articles and themes. Before articles are used, the magazine must secure permission and pay for the right to reprint them.

While many of the publications in the collection have a very pronounced political bent, mostly toward the left, publisher Utne insists his magazine is not political.

"I think of us as a cultural magazine," he said.

The magazine is particular about the type of ads it accepts. Liquor and cigarette ads, for example, are rejected. So, too, is advertising from companies the magazine considers socially irresponsible.

Yet in many ways, Utne's readers are an advertiser's dream. They have money - the median household income, according to its latest reader survey, is nearly $53,000. They are educated, well-read and well-traveled, said Mike Tronnes, the magazine's advertising director.

When Tronnes joined the magazine in 1987, he was its advertising staff. Today it is a staff of five.

But the world in which Utne exists has changed drastically. And, founder Utne acknowledges, its new challenge is to stay on the cutting edge when the mainstream press is trying to steal its thunder.

Time for reinvention

Success and longevity have led to at least one conclusion, he said: It's time for the Utne Reader to reinvent itself. The company would like to be thought of as sort of a Ben & Jerry's or The Body Shop of the publishing business, said Craig Neal, the magazine's publisher. That means being a business that is not only profitable, but also socially responsible.

The magazine also is testing a variety of ideas that will expand the use of the Utne Reader name to products in line with the magazine's philosophy, Neal said. That includes things like Utne Reader-published books, electronic products, even an Utne Reader-produced radio magazine show that would most likely air over public broadcast stations.

The magazine also finds itself dealing with a potentially more threatening concern: readership perception of its image.

There has been grumbling among some of the magazine's more ardent, longtime fans that it has lost its edge, become too general, too predictable, too . . . mainstream.

The magazine's editors say the charge isn't true. Still it's one that has triggered a lot of internal self-examination, said Elizabeth Larsen, associate editor.

The magazine also is concerned about attracting younger audiences, said Larsen, who recently turned 30. "This is a pretty heavily baby boomer-produced magazine. We're getting kind of solid middle-class interests . . . people buying houses, starting to have kids . . . so we want to make sure the magazine doesn't just reflect that sensibility."