The Anarchist’s Compass No. 1

Note: The following story isn’t about woodworking, exactly. But if this moment had never happened, there wouldn’t be a Lost Art Press. I hope it makes you feel something.

Mr. Haircut looked at me and all the accounting/e-commerce types sitting around the conference table.

“You want to hear the craziest publishing story ever?” he asked.

He leaned forward and opened his mouth to speak. During the next three minutes, Mr. Haircut would transform from somebody I wouldn’t mind having a beer with to someone I wouldn’t mind being torn asunder by possums.

This was 2006, shortly after F+W Publications was acquired for the third time. This time it was venture capital guys who specialized in business-to-business (B2B) magazines. You know, those magazines devoted to one industry. The mags are given free to subscribers and rely on advertising alone to survive. Waste Age magazine is a famous one. The plumbing industry has 17 of these magazines (and somehow not one of them is named The Toilet Paper: Your…