Book Review: Exploring Online Magazines

Webworks: e-zines Exploring Online Magazines, Martha Gill, Rockport Publishers,
ISBN 1-56496-555-4 $40.

"e-zines" is a volume in the webworks series that provides a snapshot of the state of the art in various on-line disciplines. It showcases various e-zines that the editor regards as "standard solutions to the enormous challenge of designing information and holding the reader's attention on-line." The sites are organised into groups: business; computing; counter culture; popular culture; entertainment; lifestyle; self-published. Each site gets about 5 pages, mainly screen shots, with a brief commentary based on an interview with the e-zine's editor/designer.

I can't recommend this book. It did not meet my expectations in terms of the content. I was hoping to get information about best practices we could apply to our e-zine, which is sent edition by edition to our readers but also has a longer term persistence on our website. This book almost exclusively deals with the graphics design issues of web pages that contain "magazine-type content changing fairly rapidly". The introduction says "The title of this book, Webworks e-zines, maybe misleading." Though the editor is commenting on the development of e-zines from underground Xeroxed 'zines of the early 90's. We agree!

More crucially, I feel the book fails to meet its own stated objectives of showcasing "standout solutions". The various examples offer contradicting advice. They are mostly worried about the graphics design of the page. It does not even seriously address the issues concerned with navigation of such sites. Some designers are hugely enthusiastic about the technologies like Flash and Shockwave that will tend to lead to long download times. E-zines exist for their content and there was far too little explanation of the way graphics design practice helps get the content over to the reader.

However I did get one take-away from reading this book. If you do have a print or email style e-zine the online pages that contain the previous issues can't simply be an issue by issue archive as ours is today. The web-site is a different medium to the e-mail and of course the medium affects the message.

Mike Evans
email: mike.evans@cambashi.com

Also in this issue:

Feature Article: Cambashi Seminar review
John Dwyer, recently voted business and professional columnist of the year 2002 by the Periodical Publishers' Association, has written a synopsis of the presentations given at the Cambashi Seminar held at the Gaydon Motor Centre in April…

Hot Topic: Making IT disappear
Peter Thorne discusses the pending arrival of a time when technologists will know they've succeeded since the fruits of their labours are so simple, reliable, available and predictable that we all just take them for granted.

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