May 16, 2022, 3:50pm
Following last week’s surprising news that The Black Mountain Institute at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had sold the magazine The Believer to a marketing company called Paradise Media, The Believer is now back with its former parent company, McSweeney’s.
The Sex Toy Collective(!), a website owned by Paradise which had announced itself on Twitter last week as the new owner of The Believer, has tweeted the news of the magazine’s sale:
We’re happy to announce we decided to sell The Believer to McSweeney’s for a significant discount. There’s a press release coming out about it soon. Please donate to them here to support The Believer. https://t.co/bTZwXsntTw.
– the sex toy collective— The Believer (@believermag) May 16, 2022
In October, The Believer announced that The Black Mountain Institute had chosen to shutter the magazine, making their February/March 2022 issue their final one. Last week, after an article advertising hookup sites appeared on The Believer, the Sex Toy Collective announced that they planned to feature articles and advertisements on the website that might generate revenue. The Believer’s former editor Kristen Radtke, who had left the magazine in July before the shuttering of the magazine, took to Twitter to explain the details that she knew.
Alright. Here’s what happened. I left The Believer in July, and a few months later its parent institution, the Black Mountain Institute based at UNLV, announced it was shuttering the magazine. It went up for sale. https://t.co/wB5TDrOrgD
— Kristen Radtke (@KristenRadtke) May 10, 2022
Radtke mentioned that after the Black Mountain Institute, which had owned The Believer since 2017, announced its plans to shut down the magazine, McSweeney’s, which founded the magazine in 2003, had attempted to buy it back, to no avail, losing out to a bid by Paradise Media. According to The New York Times, Paradise Media had purchased the site for $225,000. McSweeney’s had begun crowdfunding an amount to “bring The Believer back home.”
Following last week’s large public outcry, Paradise Media agreed to sell The Believer back to McSweeney’s. Explained Paradise Media’s Chief Executive Ian Moe, “They can do a much better job than us.”