| circulation of print magazines has declined | | | | beat this one stop shop. So, how can print |
| precipitously in the last 24 months. This dissolution of | | | | publications defend themselves?By being creative and |
| subscriber bases has accelerated dramatically as | | | | by not conceding defeat is how.Consider WuliWeb's |
| economic recession set in. But a diminishing wealth | | | | example of thinking outside the printed box.It is a |
| effect is only partly to blame. The managements of | | | | simple online application which enables its users to |
| printed periodicals - from dailies to quarterlies - failed | | | | "send, save and share material from print |
| miserably to grasp the Internet's potential and | | | | publications". Participating magazines and newspapers |
| potential threat. They were fooled by the lack of | | | | print "WuliCodes" on their (physical) pages and |
| convenient and cheap e-reading devices into believing | | | | WuliWeb subscribers barcode-scan, or manually enter |
| that old habits die hard. They do - but magazine | | | | them into their online "Content Manager" via |
| reading is not habit forming. Readers' loyalties are | | | | keyboard, PDA, pager, cell phone, or fixed phone |
| fickle and shift according to content and price. The | | | | (using a PIN). The service is free (paid for by the |
| Web offers cornucopial and niche-targeted content - | | | | magazine publishers and advertisers) and, according |
| free of charge or very cheaply. This is hard to beat | | | | to WuliWeb, offers these advantages to its |
| and is getting harder by the day as natural selection | | | | users:"Once you choose to use WuliWeb's free |
| among dot.bombs spares only quality content | | | | service, you will no longer have to laboriously "tear |
| providers.Consider Ploughshares, the Literary Journal.It | | | | and share" print articles or ads that you want to |
| is a venerable, not for profit, print journal published | | | | archive or share with colleagues or friends. You will |
| by Emerson College, now marking its 30th | | | | be able to store material sourced from print |
| anniversary. It recently inaugurated its web sibling. | | | | publications permanently in your own secure, |
| The project consumed three years and $125,000 | | | | electronic files, and you can share this material |
| (grant from the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds). | | | | instantly with any number of people. Magazine and |
| Every title Ploughshares has ever published was | | | | Newspaper Publishers will now have the ability to |
| indexed (over 18,000 journal pages digitized). In all, | | | | distribute their online content more widely and to |
| the "website will offer free access to over 2,750 | | | | offer a richer experience to their readers. Advertisers |
| poems and short stories from past and current | | | | will be able to deploy dynamic and media-rich content |
| issues."The more than 2000 (!) authors ever published | | | | to attract and convert customers, and will be able to |
| in Ploughshares will each maintain a personal web | | | | communicate more completely with their |
| page comprising biographical notes, press releases, | | | | customers."Links to the shared material are stored in |
| new books and events announcements and links to | | | | WuliWeb's central database and users gain access to |
| other web sites. This is the Yahoo! formula. Content | | | | them by signing up for a (free) WuliWeb account. |
| generated by the authors will thus transform | | | | Thus, the user's mailbox is unencumbered by huge |
| Ploughshares into a leading literary portal.But | | | | downloads. Moreover, WuliWeb allows for a |
| Ploughshares did not stop at this standard features. | | | | keywords-based search of articles saved.Perhaps the |
| A "bookshelf" will link to book reviews contributed | | | | only serious drawback is that WuliWeb provides its |
| online (and augmented by the magazine's own | | | | users only with LINKS to content stored on |
| prestigious offerings). An annotated bookstore is just | | | | publishers' web sites. It is a directory service - not a |
| a step away (though Ploughshares' web site does | | | | full text database. This creates dependence. Links |
| not include one hitherto). The next best thing is a | | | | may get broken. Whole web sites vanish. Magazines |
| rights-management application used by the journal's | | | | and their publishers go under. All the more reason for |
| authors to grant online publishing permissions for their | | | | publishers to adopt this service and make it their |
| work to third parties.No print literary magazine can | | | | own. |