Barbara Fischkin Named New Senior Editor of On The Issues Magazine

NEW YORK (September 24, 2012) -- BARBARA FISCHKIN, an award-winning former foreign correspondent, author, educator and prominent activist has been named Senior Editor of On The Issues Magazine. The magazine was founded in 1982 by trailblazer MERLE HOFFMAN, who over four decades has been among the country’s leading advocates for women, their health and their reproductive and political rights.

On the Issues is – and has always been –a groundbreaking publication. It began as a newsletter inspired by CHOICES, a pioneering medical clinic for women and by the need for more information to be disseminated for and about women.

Fischkin, under the direction of Hoffman, will lead a lead a major content and design revision - one that will adhere to the progressive philosophy and beliefs of On The Issues - as it develops an even more comprehensive global voice for women of all backgrounds and for the hot button issues crucial to their lives.  

In 1971 Hoffman  - author of the recently published “Intimate Wars: The Life and Times of the Woman Who Brought Abortion from the Back Alley to the Board Room” - opened CHOICES Women’s Medical Center, one of the first legal abortion clinics in the country.  This was two years before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion nationally.

Under Hoffman’s direction as CEO and President, CHOICES has since expanded into one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive women’s medical facilities, serving more than 40,000 patients per year, offering full reproductive and primary health care services and emphasizing Hoffman’s “Patient Power” philosophy, which encourages women to realize their power of choice as medical consumers.  
 
On the Issues Magazine , initially a newsletter of CHOICES, began publishing to share information with other health care providers and pro-choice activists on issues such as the AIDS crisis and the newly diagnosed pre-menstrual syndrome. The publication rapidly grew to become an acclaimed, national quarterly publication covering not just health care but a wide range of progressive issues. In 2008, On the Issues Magazine was revamped and introduced as a free online publication, reaching thousands of readers. It has an extensive archive.

Hoffman, Publisher and  Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, notes that the magazine along with its archive bridges the all-too-common gaps between academia and new media and by doing so enables great works to be read.
 
According to Fischkin:

“The current presidential campaign has made it crystal clear that there is still an enormous amount of work to be done at home to insure equity, justice and a decent quality of life for American women. This challenge is magnified by events internationally, including the sexually-connected criminalization and murder of women in fundamentalist societies.  Today On The Issues is needed more than ever.”

Fischkin has written about women’s issues from Latin America, Ireland, Northern Ireland – and in New York - for major publications including the New Yorker, Ms. Magazine, Newsday, the Boston Globe, and the International Herald Tribune. She is the author of three books including “Muddy Cup: A Dominican Family Comes of Age in A New America,” considered a landmark work. Fischkin has served as a mentor for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project.

“On the Issues has found a seasoned journalist to lead this effort to report, investigate, analyze and publish muscular, accurate editorials and hold public forums fueled by this work,” says Hoffman.
 

Contact Information

Barbara Fischkin

Senior Editor

On The Issues Magazine

(1) (718) 349-9100 ext. 119

Bfischkin@ontheissuesmagazine.com