Online magazine

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An online magazine shares some features with a blog, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control. Magazines typically have editors or editorial boards who review submissions and perform a quality control function to ensure that all material meets the expectations of the publishers (those investing time or money in its production) and the readership.

Online magazines that are part of the World Wide Web, that is, all or part of a web site, are also called webzines. Ezine (also spelled e-zine and usually pronounced "e-zeen") is a more generic term commonly applied to magazines and newsletters distributed by any electronic method, for example, by electronic mail (e-mail/email). Some social groups may use the terms cyberzine and hyperzine when referring to electronically distributed resources. Similarly, some online magazines may refer to themselves as "electronic magazines" to reflect their readership demographics, and more importantly to capture alternative terms and spellings in online searches.

Many large print-publishers now provide digital reproduction of their print magazine titles through various online services for a fee. These service providers also refer to their collections of these digital format products as online magazines.

Online magazines representing matters of interest to specialists in or societies for academic subjects, science, trade or industry are typically referred to as online journals.

Contents

[edit] Business model

Many general interest online magazines provide free access to all aspects of their online content although some publishers have opted to require a subscription fee to access premium online article and/or multi-media content. Online magazines generate revenue based on targeted search ads to web-site visitors, banner ads (online display advertising), affiliations to retail web sites, classified advertisements, product-purchase capabilities, advertiser directory links, or alternative informational/commercial purpose.

The original online magazines, ezines and disk magazines, due to their low cost and initial non-mainstream targets, may be seen as a disruptive technology to traditional publishing houses. The high cost of print publication and large web readership has encouraged these publishers to embrace the World Wide Web as a marketing and content delivery system and another medium for delivering their advertiser's messages.

[edit] Growth

In the late 1990s ezine publishers began adapting to the interactive qualities of the Internet instead of duplicating magazines on the web. Publishers of traditional print titles and entrepreneurs with an eye to a potential readership in the millions started publishing online titles. Salon ([1]) founded in July 1995 by David Talbot was launched with considerable media exposure and today reports 5.8 million monthly unique visitors.

In the 2000s, some webzines began appearing in a printed format to complement their online versions. These included Movie Insider, Slate, Synthesis and Lucire magazines.

[edit] Conferences

Between 1998 and 2005, in San Francisco and New York, a series of webzine-focused conferences brought together independent personal online publishers to share their experiences. Started by Srini Kumar, the "Webzine" conferences were continued primarily by filmmaker Ryan Junell and Eddie Codel. Junell has worked to track the history of the early webzine movement through these festivals; his research is linked below. After a hiatus, Codel and Junell organized the return of the Webzine conference to the Bay Area in 2005. Webzine 2005 took place over two days at the Swedish-American Hall in San Francisco. It consisted of three main areas: speakers and panel discussions, workshops and a self-organizing area called the Master's Lounge modeled after BAR Camp. Webzine 2005 was emceed by veteran Webzine emcee Justin Hall, Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

ISSN International Centre, ISSN Manual Cataloguing Part, January 2009. [2]

International Organization for Standardization, ISO 3297:2007 – Information and documentation – International standard serial number (ISSN) [3]

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