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The Unshuttered Shutter-Bug Mag

New Next-The Unshuttered Shutter-Bug MagFrom picketing to marching, people have been banding together around causes they passionately believe in for decades. Never before has the scale and speed in which change can be effected been so massive, though.

JPG is a photography magazine with a tightly knit online network: Nearly 200,000 people submit and share their photos on jpgmag.com. The community aspect of the site - peer commenting and voting, sharing of productive criticism, tips and guidance - favors a democratic view of photography over a pretentious one, and members' photographs are selected and published in the magazine's six annual issues.

On Jan. 1, the sad news that JPG would be shutting its doors hit the Web and members' in-boxes. JPG thought that they had tried everything, including seeking out potential investors and buyers. What they didn't realize at the time was that their biggest strength lay in what sourced the magazine's content in the first place: the people. Almost immediately upon hearing the news, those who saw a family in JPG rallied together to fight its death. Among countless blog, Twitter and Flickr posts, savejpg.com was born, soliciting personal stories about people's relationship with the magazine.

And respond they did: This outpouring of support was noticed almost as quickly as it started: JPG sent a follow-up email just a few days later stating, "Because of you, we have multiple credible buyers interested in giving JPG a home." So, while JPG members didn't directly bring back the magazine, their swift and powerful collective influence perked up the ears of potential investors before it was too late - investors who might otherwise have overlooked a small arts publication.

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