by robtherobber | 2025-06-18 11:54:13+00:00
D. Readership

Jacobin is genuinely independent, as all quality mags should be – primarily funded by readers and subscriptions. They understand the demand for journalism and long-form content for a left (and beyond) audience, and constantly deliver on that.

According to their site [10], the magazine has around 75k subscribers (and 3M online visitors), which I think I read in one of the sources quoteed below that it outperforms nearly all explicitly left-wing print publications (think Dissent, The Nation, and The Baffler), and whilst not exactly mass-market, they qualify for top-tier among political journals. It should be said that it's uncommon for explicitly left media to reach this scale without corporate ads or institutional backing.

I argue that it punches above its weight in terms of digital reach, syndication, and influence in academia and activist circles, but I don't yet have the data to back this conclusion up (mainly because it would take time to obtain it and I'm lazy). It may be small in absolute terms, but that in terms of influence per capita it's likely rather significant. If you spend a bit of time digging through its content (assuming your interests are aligned with theirs), it becomes obvious why. It's also surprisingly well-connected with policymakers around the world [1], and count among their clients the New Left Review and university presses like Duke and Stanford.

E. Popularity and whatnot

A few major media platforms have mentioned them in their shows, articles, news, and bulletins. MSNBC [12], NYT [8], the conservative National Review [14], Politico [15], Tablet Magazine [16], New Left Review [17], The Guardian [18], The New Yorker [19], CJR [3], and more.

In addition to their staff, it's likely that some or most important left thinkers alive who can write in English and are active have contributed to the magazine. Notable contributors include Nathan J. Robinson (of Current Affairs), Cory Doctorow, Hilary Wainwright (of Red Pepper mag), Sohrab Ahmari (of Compact Magazine), Slavoj Žižek, normative political theorist Bernard Harcourt, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bernie Sanders, the former vice president of Bolivia, Álvaro García Linera, the French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Annie Ernaux, the West Papuan independence leader, Benny Wenda, the co-founder of the independent publisher OR Books, Colin Robinson, the former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, and a host of authors, journalists, researchers, sociologists, historians, political scientists, economists, philosophers, lecturers, union leaders, organisers, workers, and more. It is really a pleasure to read many of these, everything considered [20].

To me, and many like me who want to see a more equitable and fair world - one that we should exert more democratic political control over - Jacobin is a much-needed source of information and investigation that holds power to account and translates boring but important social, economic, and political research into plain English. A just and sustainable reality of our own making should not just include the views of the left; it should encourage it to participate meaningfully in politics and help temper the right-wing extremism [21] that has been taking over the US, Europe, and much of the world over the last 40 years. In the end, what we need is a society that addresses the needs of individuals, communities, and the environment - not just market outcomes or abstract freedoms, which are merely instruments or limited goals within a larger context. Whether the magazine will maintain its ethos remains to be seen; I'm prepared for disappointment, but I also recognise that it's just a medium at the end of the day. What matters to me is what's being said there, and I try not to become too attached to the magazine itself.

To those quick to demonise or reflexively dismiss the left's approach to politics, philosophy, social issues, and everything else, I would say there are strong arguments not to do that, especially if you value democracy. Most scholars, policymakers, organisers, economists, and researchers on the left advocate solutions that expand wellbeing across lines of class, geography, and identity. That should not just be acceptable, it should be taken seriously, pondered, and investigated. Otherwise, I'm afraid we're running out of options as a society. If the peaceful, honest, solution-focused approach is rejected, what the masses are left with is violence.

Apologies for the long text.

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[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier_(typeface) [1] https://www.vox.com/2016/3/21/11265092/jacobin-bhaskar-sunka... [2] https://www.niemanlab.org/2014/09/jacobin-a-marxist-rag-run-... [3] https://www.cjr.org/the_delacorte_lectures/jacobin-socialist... [4] https://imgbox.com/tvy2OOeM [5] https://imgbox.com/cFJv83va [6] https://jacobin.com/2025/06/wealth-tax-canada-inequality-aus... [7] https://jacobin.com/2020/01/george-soros-defense-of-open-soc... [8] https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/books/bhaskar-sunkara-edi... [9] https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ssl/2017/11/23/new-politics-... [11] https://jacobin.com/about [12] https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-podcast/why-is-this-happening/un... [14] https://www.nationalreview.com/the-agenda/provocative-essay-... [15] https://www.politico.com/story/2011/10/new-target-for-ows-cr... [16] https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/young-intel... [17] https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii90/articles/bhaskar-sunka... [18] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/oct/19/jacobin-magazi... [19] https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-editor-of-jacobin... [20] https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fjacob... [21] https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/ctc/news/secretary-genera...