Check It. Longshot magazine.

To put it simply and obviously, the journalism business has been having a tough time. But every once in a while, there comes a spark of hope that maybe everything will be okay, that there are enough people with enough passion to get journalism through this rough patch. That latest spark is Longshot magazine.

Longshot is an experiment to create a magazine, start-to-finish, in a span of 48 hours. That involves everything from announcing a theme, to accepting submissions, and then actually designing a publication with art and graphics.

Sounds like a longshot, indeed, but alas, it happened. From August 27-29, people (they say hundreds) got together in San Francisco, Portland and Los Angeles (based in the GOOD offices here), and fueled with passion, sleeplessness and booze (the last two surely affecting one another) created Issue One of Longshot magazine. The theme was "Comeback," and features a number of great stories from writers all over the country.

And get this: everyone who worked on the issue is supposed to get paid. Not a lot, of course, but having a pay model at all these days is admirable in the least (but really, it's freaking magnanimous). But the money only comes through the profits, so go buy it already! Sixty beautiful, passion-filled pages for $11? It's worth believing in journalism.

Preview Issue One of Longshot magazine here, buy the issue here, and/or buy an accompanying T-shirt here.

-- Chau Tu