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635 South Westlake, Los Angeles, CA 90057

a magazine of women's culture

Chrysalis

May 24, 1979

Dear Friend of Chrysalis,
It's no secret that today's inflation and tight money are putting the squeeze on small businesses. Chrysalis is no exception. In our 2 1/2 years of existence we have battled constantly with chronic undercapitalization, and so far we've survived. But, we are now saddled with old debt that frankly has us in a straight jacket. The magazine is facing a cash shortage so severe as to threaten its continued existence. I am turning to you as someone whose support has counted in the past with this urgent appeal for help. To put it bluntly, in the next three months we need to raise a total of $44,000: that includes $7,500 by June 6 in order to get issue #8 out to subscribers, $10,000 by July 1 to pay back a bank loan, and an additional $26,500 to clear up other outstanding old debt.

We have mounted an intensive campaign to generate the necessary cash. We are appealing to all of our subscribers to renew their subscriptions now; issue #8 contains a special pitch for gift subscriptions; we are planning an aggressive campaign at the National Women's Studies Convention at the end of May; and, finally, this letter is going out to about 300 supporters who care about the future of Chrysalis.

Ironically, this crisis hits us at a time when in other respects we have made what seem to us like crucial breakthroughs. First, there's our circulation growth from our initial 200 charter subscribers to 13,000 today. This growth rate proves to us a viability of our market, and by all standards it is a remarkable achievement for an independent women's publication started with almost no capital. With issue #7, our current issue, we began an attempt to bring more editorial liveliness and design spontaneity into the magazine. It's been enormously gratifying to see the sudden increase in love letters from readers and reorders from bookstores in response to this issue. Also, as you can see in issue #7, commercial book publishers are beginning to advertise their women's books in Chrysalis. From this effort we expect a dramatic increase in advertising revenues. At the same time, with an eye toward greater efficiency in cost and service to