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Here’s how it works: Issue Zero begins May 7th. We’ll unveil a theme and you’ll have 24 hours to produce and submit your work. We’ll take the next 24 to snip, mash and gild it. The end results will be a shiny website and a beautiful glossy paper magazine, delivered right to your old-fashioned mailbox. We promise it will be insane. Better yet, it might even work.

Writers and artists from some of your favorite publications like Rolling Stone, Wired, Dwell, Gizmodo, GOOD, Lapham’s Quarterly, HiLoBrow, Fray, Paleofuture, and The Rumpus have already signed up. Mainly because we promise that this thing will be fun. No long commitments. No pitches. No grinding editing process. You make good stuff fast; we publish it with other good stuff.

We’ve been inspired by a range of other projects: Strange Light, Pop Up Magazine, Ash Cloud Tales, and The Whole Earth Catalog. But really, it is the existence of the tools themselves that have invaded our dreams.

Logistics in 5 Easy Steps
• You can participate from anywhere and tune into our Ustream feed to watch the madness at 48 Hour HQ go down live. If you’re in the Bay Area and want to come work with us, send an email to editors@48hrmag.com. We posted the submission guidelines here in the blog.
• Timeline: May 7 announced & submissions open at 12 noon PST. May 8 Submissions close at 4 pm PST (yes, we gave you four extra hours). May 9 the magazine wraps, and ships to the printer at 12 noon PST. You’ll be able to purchase the print edition then at MagCloud or read it in it’s entirety here at 48hrmag.com
• Every dollar that comes in or goes out will be transparent. We have a handful of sponsor slots open and we’re going to sell the magazines at a slight markup over the production cost. We will be paying published contributors and have some other special plans for the profits. We’re working with Spot.us to make any monetary exchanges transparent.
• Send your questions, comments, suggestions, and good cheer to editors@48hrmag.com. Is something on this site broken? Contact tech@48hrmag.com.
• Photographers should send the highest resolution photo you’ve got. Writers can submit any length piece, but shorter is probably easier to fit. While technically you’ve got 28 hours, think of that as a maximum. The faster you get your work in, the better.