Paste's fundraising campaign to save itself [0] appears to be off to a nice start.

The ailing music magazine, which launched [0] its “Save Paste [1]” last week, said in an e-mail that it has raised $166,000 so far. “The response has been phenomenal,” Josh Jackson, Paste’s editor, wrote. “That was the minimum that we needed to keep us going into the summer; we never expected to hit this goal so quickly.”

To continue publishing beyond that, the Decatur, Georgia-based title needs another $134,000—or a total $300,000—to “take care of bills that spiraled up during the ad slump.”

Jackson said 12 different readers have donated $500. "But it's really been a ton of $10 and $25 donations that have made the difference," he said.

Paste said last week [1] that it has implemented several cost-cutting measures, including a 20 percent pay cut, leasing out office space and eliminating all "non-essential travel." Its monthly circulation is about 180,000.

“Most of our debt will be paid out of revenues when the economy starts to rebound and advertisers return,” Jackson wrote. “We're halfway to that goal and more confident than ever that Paste will make it.”