| Compact | |
| Founder: | Sohrab Ahmari, Edwin Aponte, and Matthew Schmitz |
| Founded: | 2022 |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Website: | https://www.compactmag.com |
Compact is an American online magazine that began operating in March 2022.[1] [2] The magazine was co-founded by Edwin Aponte, a populist and founder of The Bellows, Matthew Schmitz, a former editor of the conservative ecumenical journal First Things, and conservative opinion journalist Sohrab Ahmari. When it was founded, The New York Times described the magazine's listed contributors and contributing editors as ideologically diverse, including religiously conservative Catholics, populists, and dissident Marxist feminists. The magazine's editorial line is critical of liberalism from both the left and the right.[3]
Planning for the launch of the magazine began in 2020 between Ahmari and Schmitz, who later incorporated Aponte on the condition that half of the site's content cover "material concerns". Compact launched without a paywall for its first few weeks, and is now run on a reader-funded model, requiring a paid subscription to access all of the articles on the site.[4] [5] Co-founder Edwin Aponte exited the magazine in late 2022 over political differences after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization U.S. Supreme Court decision was leaked to the public.[6]
According to Danny Postel, writing in New Lines Magazine, its approach is a "'synthesis' of communitarian conservatism and social democracy"."[7] According to Matt McManus, writing in Jacobin, it is "an ideologically syncretic outlet in the spirit of Christopher Lasch". McManus further wrote that "Compact's ambition is to argue for a strong social democratic state that also resists libertine ideologies and upholds local, national, familial, and religious communities."[8] Stephanie Slade, writing in Reason, describes it as the new home of post-liberalism, whose editors espouse "intense religious conservatism [with] a whiff of socialism". Slade wrote: "By bringing a 'labor populism' with deep roots in the socialist tradition and a 'political Catholicism' that questions the very separation of church and state under a single roof, Compact has built an intellectual meeting place not just for post-liberal conservatives but for anti-liberals of every stripe."[9]
The magazine includes columnists, such as Christopher Caldwell, Lee Smith, Malcom Kyeyune, and Nina Power, and contributing editors including Adrian Vermeule, Glenn Greenwald, Liel Leibovitz, Michael Tracey, Patrick Deneen, Paul Embery, and Slavoj Žižek.[10]