• by Sara Guaglione , March 7, 2017

Pastehas released its first print issue in nearly seven years. This time around, the magazine has a larger format, more visuals and comes with a vinyl album sampler.

The music and pop culture magazine announced in December that it would re-launch its print edition, this time printing quarterly instead of bimonthly. Paste was distributed in print from 2002-2010.

An Indiegogo campaign ramped up support for the reboot, aiming to reach $100,000 by January 20, 2017. The campaign raisied $151,548, with funds going toward subscriptions and perks for readers.

Paste founder and editor-in-chief Josh Jackson told Publishers Daily the magazine is an effort to engage with Paste’s core audience, as well as support its digital presence. He said Paste readers were hungry for a print product.

Since going digital-only, Paste has expanded its coverage to more lifestyle topics, such as food, drink, tech, style, politics, culture and travel. In January, the site boasted over 8 million unique Web visitors. The goal, Jackson said, is to grow to 20 million.

The first issue’s cover is graced with the presence of Father John Misty. Each issue comes with a colored vinyl album called the Paste Sampler, with tracks recorded exclusively for the publication at Paste’s studio in New York City.

The first Paste Sampler includes songs by Violent Femmes, Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves, Lucius, Josh Ritter, Joseph, Anderson East, Lee Fields, Bonnie Bishop and Courtney Barnett.

The magazine used to come with CD samplers, but Jackson says that in this era of digital downloads, a CD felt outdated. So Paste decided to go back even further in time, tapping into the recent hip resurgence of the vinyl record trend.

“This is a throwback to print and analog,” Jackson told Publishers Daily.

The new magazine has a new 12-by-12-inch format, with thick paper and vibrant visuals, giving loyal readers a premium product that can also look impressive on a coffee table.

“We’ve embraced the realities of our new digital world and are thankful for all the new ways it allows us to present stories to our readers. But we still love the tangible. We love the smell and feel of a magazine fresh off the printer, the sound of a needle traveling the grooves of a vinyl album,” Jackson wrote in a memo announcing the print launch.

Jackson said they learned from their previous print business that it’s important to focus on good storytelling and a premium product, rather than “getting as many [issues] out there for as cheap as possible.”

He noted the difficulty of competing on the newsstand, so Paste has partnered with indie record store Record Store Day to sell their magazines nationwide beginning March 17, for $20 per issue. A year's subscriptions costs $70. The issue shipped to subscribers March 1.

The magazine is supported by subscription revenue. There are ads as well, which had to be formatted to fit the large size of the magazine, but “there is not a ton of it.” Jackson said he did not want too many ads to take over the magazine. He calls the magazine “less newsy and very visual.”

Every feature is a “more involved” story, compared to what readers would find online. All come with an art feature produced by longtime Paste designer Jose Reyes.