Tangente will celebrate its pearl anniversary with its readers in November. A variety of events are being planned and will be announced in the September issue. Who could have imagined it at the end of 1987, when a group of enthusiasts set out to publish a magazine devoted to mathematical culture?
The story of a mathematical adventure --------------------------------------
For the entire community of enthusiasts, Tangente is now a fixture in the field. Yet its considerable output—six issues, four special newsstand editions and four books in the "Bibliothèque Tangente" series, as well as numerous other magazines and books on mathematics and mind games—is produced by a small but highly active group. They devote a great deal of time to writing and editing articles and handling administration, for little reward in return for their efforts, apart from the pleasure of taking part in a unique adventure.
From the outset, we chose to depend solely on our readers, rather than on the wishes of institutions or the generosity of a select few. Hence the decision to publish the magazine through an independent, self-financing company. A company: a dirty word to some, who have no idea how much devotion running one requires. Calculated per hour worked, the income earned by our few employees and our authors is far below that of people whose work for certain associations or institutions is funded through reduced teaching loads or even secondments…
But independence also means risk. The magazine's history has seen several difficult periods: its move onto newsstands in the early 2000s; the failure in 2006 of Aventure Math, despite its recognition as one of the best school textbooks; and, in 2009, that of an innovative digital textbook launched before its time. Today, after ten years of stability, several factors are combining to suggest that another difficult period lies ahead unless action is taken.
The main one is the substantial investment made in the digital edition, which has yet to become profitable. This outstanding edition, widely praised, went online a year ago. The website, one of a kind, allows readers not only to browse the issues but also to access supplementary material, animations, links, videos and more…
Another factor is the disastrous distribution of our books in bookshops. Our distributor can no longer get even 300 copies into bookshops! The decline in advertising is also deeply worrying. Our thanks go to CASIO, our most loyal advertiser. A few others continue to support us, but with smaller budgets.
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Thirty ways to show your support --------------------------------------
Of course, we have taken steps to reduce certain expenses, but the savings will not be enormous, as our operation is already run on an extremely tight budget. In this context, you, our dear readers, are in the best position to help the magazine overcome any temporary difficulties it may face. More than 3,000 of you are subscribers, and over 3,000 more buy the magazine from a newsstand every two months. Allowing for an average of just over two readers per issue—according to a survey conducted several years ago that did not even include libraries—more than 15,000 of you follow us regularly. Just imagine the power of that!
There are many ways to help, but we will focus on three broad avenues, explained in the three boxes accompanying this article.
We are counting on each of you to help in at least one of these ways.