Liberty is a libertarian journal, founded in 1987 by R. W. Bradford in Port Townsend, Washington, and then edited from San Diego by Stephen Cox. Unlike Reason, which is printed on glossy paper and has full-color photographs, Liberty was printed on uncoated paper stock and had line drawing cartoons by S. H. Chambers and Rex F. "Baloo" May, no photographs except for advertisements, and only one extra color, which was limited to the cover and occasionally a few ads. Beginning in November 2010, the magazine transitioned to an online-only format.
History
Bradford had planned the launch of Liberty for several years during the 1980s, waiting, in part, for the development of desktop publishing software to make the endeavor cost-effective for a short-run periodical. The magazine achieved Bradford's target circulation by the end of the first year of publication. Starting it as an arm of his private publishing business, he turned the magazine over to a 501 non-profit corporation in 1993. Until late 1998, Liberty published bimonthly. In 1999, it moved from a bimonthly to a monthly publication schedule. Beginning in 2008, the print version was published eleven times a year, with one issue being a "double issue." Beginning in November 2010, the magazine transitioned to an online-only format that does not arrange content into separate monthly or bimonthly issues. The magazine's list of editors at start-up included Murray Rothbard; Karl Hess joined soon after. Both wrote for the magazine and both were featured prominently in subscription advertising. Rothbard left the masthead in 1990, following his break with the Libertarian Party and his public move towards paleolibertarianism; Hess stayed with the magazine until his death. From the beginning, Liberty gave extensive coverage to the history of the libertarian movement, repeatedly focusing on the biography and legacy of Ayn Rand. The magazine offered the first printing of Rothbard's pamphlet The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult as its first subscription bonus. John Hospers's two-part series "Talking With Ayn Rand" was among the magazine's notable early publishing coups. Characteristically, Bradford juxtaposed scholarly, intellectual writing from philosophers such as Loren Lomasky and Jan Narveson and economists such as Mark Skousen, Doug Casey, Leland Yeager, and David Friedman, with work by young, virtually unknown amateur writers. With few exceptions, the magazine does not pay writers for their contributions.
