8
MEDIA KIT
MEDIA KIT
page 2
The mission of The Believer magazine is to deliver reports from unexpected outposts in the world of culture, nature, and thought. We champion creators; we invite curiosity and experimentation; we celebrate the oddly absorbing and the absorbingly odd. Against conven-tional judgment, we dare to believe.
Founded by three novelists in 2003, The Believer is a five-time National Magazine Award finalist and has had dozens of pieces appear in The Best American series.
In 2017, The Believer was acquired by the Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, an international literary center with a mission to bring writers and the literary imagination into the heart of public life.
ABOUT
✯✯
✯✯
ISBN 978-0-9993231-1-3
7 8 0 9 9 99 3 2 3 1 1 3$12 US ✯ $14.99 CAN
51200
PLUS:ADVICE ON HOW TO TALK TO BEARS
A REVIEW OF A KEURIG COFFEE MACHINE
MICHELLE TEA ON SAN FRANCISCO’S MOST NOTORIOUS LESBIAN GANG
INTERVIEWS WITH: VANNA WHITE,ALISSA NUTTING,
& DONALD HALL
THE SPAS, DINERS, & FOCACCERIAS OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY
ADVICE FROM COMEDIANAPARNA NACHERLA
A FORUM ON FACTS & A SYMPOSIUM ON LIES, FEATURING: MORGAN PARKERDAVID GRANN RACHEL KHONG MATTHEW ZAPRUDER SARAH MANGUSO & MORE
page 3
Over half of our readers have completed a graduate or professional degree, and 96% of have some form of higher education.
ABOUT OUR READERSOur principal reader is a well educated urban professional
with disposable income who is deeply engaged in a wide range of literary and cultural activities.
Our readers are professionals with disposable income.
Our readers are avid book buyers87% of our readers buy more than 5 books a year
$150,000+ 20%
$100,000–$150,000 18%
$50,000–$100,000 28%
6–10 books 17%
11–20 books 33%
21+ books 38%
Our subscribers are cultural consumers and frequent travelers. 96% of our subscribers listed “reading” as a common leisure activity • 64% attend cultural events • 50% are frequent travellers
Our readers are recommenders: 90% of our subscribers said they are very likely to recommend The Believer to a friend.
Our readers are creators.
52% of our readers
write
30% create visual art
Our readers are city dwellers
Our readers regularly attend a wide range of cultural events: Film 88%Museums/Galleries 83%Concerts 82%Theatre 52%Literary Readings 45%Lectures 42%Tastings/Food Events 33%Symphony/Opera 30%Ballet/Dance 19%
Bachelor’s degree 87%
Graduate or professional degree 56%
Currently completing graduate degree 5%
age
25-3424%
35-4426%
45-5427%55-64
17%
65+ 3%
18-242%
Urban69%
Suburban21%
Rural9%
page 4
Daniel AlarcónHilton Als
Judd ApatowRae Armantrout
Fred ArmisenJohn Ashbery
Jesse BallMary Jo Bang
John BarthElif BatumanSven Birkerts
Eula BissTom Bissell
Michael Ian BlackRoberto BolañoRay BradburyJericho Brown
Carrie BrownsteinCharles BurnsStephanie BurtDavid ByrneAnne Carson
Arthur C. ClarkeJemaine Clement
Henri ColePaul Collins
T CooperSimon CritchleyLena Dunham
Geoff DyerStephen ElliottÁlvaro Enrigue Melissa Febos
Emil FerrisRodrigo FresánRivka Galchen
Zach GalifianakisJaneane Garofalo
Tavi GevinsonRachel Kaadzi Ghansah
Francisco GoldmanLev GrossmanDaniel Handler
Robert HassSheila HetiBob Hicok
Nick HornbyMichel Houellebecq
Hua HsuLeslie Jamison
Margo JeffersonTayari JonesMiranda JulyMindy Kaling
Etgar KeretChip Kidd
Chuck KlostermanWayne Koestenbaum
Yusef KomunyakaaChris Kraus
Rachel KushnerBen Lerner
Jonathan LethemSam LipsyteGary Lutz
Guy MaddinSarah Manguso
Javier MaríasBen MarcusGreil MarcusMarc Maron
Tom McCarthyTony Millionaire
Rick MoodyHaruki Murakami
Eileen MylesBob Odenkirk
Michael OndaatjePatton Oswalt
ZZ PackerGeorges PerecPer Petterson
Raymond PettibonAubrey Plaza
Martha PlimptonRichard PowersEmily Raboteau
Mary RoachMary Ruefle
Salman RushdieMike SacksLuc Sante
Paul ScheerAmy Sedaris
Frederick SeidelLeanne Shapton
David ShieldsSarah SilvermanTracy K. Smith
Zadie SmithAmanda Stern Jillian Tamaki
Greg TateMichelle Tea
Paul F. TompkinsTouré
Wells TowerWilliam T. Vollmann
Sarah VowellDerek Walcott
Ayelet WaldmanChris Ware
Lawrence WeschlerC. D. Wright
Weird Al YankovicKate Zambreno
JUST A FEW OF OUR MANY CONTRIBUTORS
The Believer has published the original work of 61 Guggenheim Fellowship winners, 45 NEA fellows, 15 MacArthur winners, 8 Pulitzer Prize winners, 6 National Book Award winners, 16 National Book Critics Circle Award winners, and 1 Nobel Prize winner—and counting.
The Believer covers art, literature, poetry, film, music, philosophy, sports, and more—we’ve even had a comics page and an advice column by Amy Sedaris. In each 128-page issue, printed on recycled, acid-free paper by friendly Canadians, you might encounter work by:
page 5
HERE’S WHAT OUR SUBSCRIBERS SAY
ABOUT US
“THE NEW YORKER’S COOL COUSIN”
“I am always banging on about it to friends. The articles always seem to coincide with work I am doing
(I make theatre) in a strange and helpful way…”
“RELEVANT AND DELICIOUSLY WEIRD”
“It feels like we’re stepping into a second Golden Age for the Believer.”
“A LITERARY OASIS IN A DESERT OF BANALITY”
“Eclectic; off the beaten path; full of stuff I didn’t know I wanted to know”
“THE BEST LITERARY POP-CULTURE MAGAZINE
EVER EXECUTED”“Never goes unread”
“LIKE NOTHING ELSE OUT THERE”
“Literally the best part of my reading month.”
“ALWAYS CATCHES ME OFFGUARD WITH TOPICS
I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW I WAS INTERESTED IN”
“An eye-catching publication that gets my friends and coworkers talking”
“THE BELIEVER IS JUST SO DAMN HIP.”
“Kind of like the New Yorker, but you don’t need to wear shoes to read it”
“A FRIENDLY LITERARY MAGAZINE THAT MAKES
YOU THINK AND FEEL”“Has me wanting to be more creative”
“ORIGINAL. TIMELESS.”“Imagine the Fonz never jumped the shark.
That’s the Believer.”
“THE BEST.”“Indispensable.”
page 6
OUR AUDIENCEBy supporting The Believer you will gain access to our growing audience.
Monthly Newsletter Subscribers 33,000
Unique website visitors 35,000 per month
Twitter followers 62,000
Facebook page likes 49,000
Instagram followers 8,000
The Believer subscribers 5,000
page 7
UNFORGETTABLE LIVE EXPERIENCES
The Believer magazine is at the center of Black Mountain Institute’s live events in Las Vegas, anchored by the annual Believer Festival.
The inaugural Believer Festival in 2017 featured actors, musicians, indepen-dent filmmakers, and literary luminaries, including Carrie Brownstein, Miranda July, Jim James, Dave Eggers, Heidi Julavits, Luis Alberto Urrea, and an all-star cast of literary talent.
In 2017, “The Believer presents” event series began in Las Vegas with Chris Kraus, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Paul Beatty.
Believer events take place in locations ranging from the open Mojave desert to the oldest operating casino-hotel in historic downtown Las Vegas. Future events are planned for Los Angeles and New York.
Let our next event involve your community. Contact [email protected] for partnership and sponsorship opportunities.
page 8
OUR PLACE IN THE CULTURE
The Believer now finds its home in Las Vegas, an oasis of culture, spurred by an openness to wild experiments backed by hard investments by philanthro-pists and entrepreneurs.
The Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, established itself through innovative live events and ground-breaking publishing projects.
BMI is the first North American City of Asylum for writers at risk of censor-ship or worse in their home countries. Live events have featured Nobel laureates, Pulitzer-prize winners, MacArthur geniuses, alongside figures from pop-culture. It’s long-running a writers-in-residence program whose recent fellows include Tayari Jones, David Ulin, and Walter Kirn. BMI backed the translation of Karl Ove Knaussgard’s My Struggle with Archipelago Books.
“[The Believer] puts out a welcome mat for pluralism and wide-eyed curiosity.”
—New York Times
“The Believer is the ultimate anti-institution. Believe!” —Namwali Serpell
“[The Believer has] people talking in the lofty reaches of the book world,
and—with its high-low mix of literary and pop-culture commentary and
McSweeney’s pedigree—it’s a magnet for younger readers.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A highly praised and proudly off-beat literary magazine” -Associated Press
“The Believer seemed to arrive in my mailbox … like a creature beamed down from another planet. I’m glad it’s back,
this time with an expanded comics section.” —The Paris Review
“Without a doubt, this Believer is heaven-sent.”
—Washington Post
“Some magazines are comfort reads. We turn to them because we can almost predict, issue to issue, what
and even whom will appear in them. But others, like . . . The Believer, are challenge reads. They’re feverishly inventive, discomfortingly surprising, and therefore among the best reminders that we are actually alive.”
—John D’Agata
“Focusing on the art, not the business, of writing, The Believer is smart, jaded and a bit self-indulgent, just like a good
literary magazine should be.” —Chicago Tribune
“The conversations to be had at Black Mountain will make you better and wiser at whatever the hell you think you’re
doing.” — Katherine Boo
