Found Magazine
Encyclopedia
Davy Rothbart
Davy Rothbart is an author, filmmaker, contributor to This American Life, and the editor/publisher of Found Magazine.-Background:...
and Jason Bitner
Jason Bitner
Jason Bitner is an author and project producer currently living in Chicago, Illinois. He is the co-creator of Found Magazine, a show-and-tell project celebrating found notes, letters and other ephemera; the creator of Cassette from My Ex, a storytelling project based around love and mixtapes; and...
and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, collects and catalogs found notes, photos, and other interesting items, publishing them in an irregularly-issued magazine, in books, and on its website. Items found and published have ranged from love letters to homework assignments, and they are contributed by people who find them in a variety of public places.
History
Logan Square
Logan Square is the name of:* Logan Square, Chicago – community on the north side of the city* Logan Circle or Logan Square – open-space park**Logan Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, adjacent neighborhood...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Rothbart shared this peek into someone else's private life with his friends. He and Jason Bitner, a friend Rothbart met at an NPR pick-up basketball game in Chicago, began soliciting other found items from their circle of friends. Originally presented as photocopied fliers of some of the best finds, the pair realized the volume of found material they collected warranted a full magazine. Laying the material out in a zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
format, Rothbart and Bitner took their creation to a local Kinko's
FedEx Office
FedEx Office is a chain of stores that provide a retail outlet for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground shipping, as well as printing, copying, and binding services...
, intending to make 50 copies to share with their friends who provided the magazine's content. An unexpected patron, actually an off-duty Kinko's employee, left Rothbart and Bitner with 700 free copies. With such a surprising abundance, they decided to give the excess to local stores to share with everybody. With the support of Quimby's Bookstore and other Chicago independent book sellers, the magazine sold quickly. Realizing their project appealed to more than just their friends, Rothbart and Bitner renamed their collection of photocopied finds Found Magazine #1 and started gathering material for future editions. Found has grown from a Chicago-based photocopied zine to a nationally-distributed annual magazine. Still retaining the essentially zine format and look, Found is up to five issues. A 250-page Found book was released in May 2004. A sister magazine, Dirty Found, started publication in 2004. Dirty Found was started to provide a home for the smuttier, more explicit, and generally sexually-themed finds that Rothbart and Bitner wanted to segregate from the more conservative Found.
The success of Found allowed both Rothbart and Bitner to leave their day jobs and work full-time on the magazine and other personal projects. Rothbart moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Found is now headquartered, while Bitner went to New York City where he heads their east coast office.
Found has also expanded beyond its original print format. Rothbart has gone on nationwide tours each year since 2002, reading favorite finds, featuring found or found-inspired music, and asking audiences to bring their own finds to share, while Bitner created and produced the Found website.
In December 2005 Alarm Clock Theatre Company
Alarm Clock Theatre Company
Alarm Clock Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Boston, Massachusetts. Their productions are semi-annual and performed at The Boston Center for the Arts Black Box Theater.Alarm Clock Theatre's critically acclaimed play P. S...
, based in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, created a play based entirely on pieces published in Found, turning the text from several pieces into songs, scenes and short films. The show won the Elliot Norton Award for Best Fringe Production.
Magazines
- Found Magazine #1 (June 2001, 80 pages)
- Found Magazine #2 (Winter 2002, 112 pages)
- Found Magazine #3 (March 2004, 96 pages)
- Found Magazine #4 (September 2005, 96 pages)
- Found Magazine #5 (September 2007, 96 pages)
- Found Magazine #6 (December 2008, 96 pages)
- Found Magazine #7 (January 2010, 96 pages)
- Dirty Found #1 (December 2004, 80 pages)
- Dirty Found #2 (November 2005, 80 pages)
- Dirty Found #3 (March 2007, 80 pages)
External links
- Found Magazine website
- "Found" Featured in CBC Radio 3CBC Radio 3CBC Radio 3 is a radio station that consists of two parts devoted to Canadian arts and music: a radio service which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio and streaming audio, and several daily and weekly podcasts from the CBC Radio 3 website...
Magazine - 20 Questions with Davy Rothbart
- Photos from Found Magazine Party at South By Southwest March 15, 2007
- Heavy In The Streets Interviews Davy Rothbart