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Author: Laryssa

Q&A with Alyssa Royse of Just Cause Magazine

Published June 19, 2009

Alyssa Royse, President and Editor-in-Chief of Just Cause, a magazine available online and in print on-demand, contacted me because she noticed a reporter query from Too Shy to Stop writer Eui-jo on Help a Reporter Out (HARO).

Alyssa was intrigued by our model, and I was intrigued by her magazine, especially since I have immersed myself in everything print on demand for the past week!  I asked her a few questions about her magazine, her ideas about print media, and her business model, and you can read her answers below.

Me: What’s the story behind Just Cause?

AR: You could come at this from several different angles – life is a series of twisted paths that seem totally disparate until they deliver you where you’re going. But after working in PR, journalism and doing a lot of volunteering, it became very clear to me that people can be (and are) united by the causes that matter to them. That seems to transcend race, age, socioeconomic status and everything else. Further, that by looking at solutions and fostering actual dialog about the issues, we can make progress. I had an “ah-ha moment” in a planning meeting for a fundraiser, and the whole thing really presented itself to me.

Beyond that, I was just sick to death of the overwhelmingly dogmatic, negative and divisive nature of media. What good is done by focusing on problems rather than solutions, failures rather than successes, or people’s basest behavior rather than their achievements? I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that the way to encourage positive behavior is to celebrate it and create a media that that looks at our potential in an instructive and inspirational way rather than focusing on the misguided notion that we are interminably screwed. I still think I’m right – we’ll see!

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