Are E-Zines Still Relevant? - The Evolution of the E-Zine
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Traditionally, e-zines are thought of as online magazines. It’s common to subscribe to an e-zine to receive a monthly or weekly issue. In cases like this, the subscriptions may also cost money.
Many traditional e-zines and well-established online magazines will charge money for content, the same way print magazines carry a price. The idea of paying for content online, however, is one that’s becoming out-of-date as more sites are offering a much more competitive rate.
These days, Internet content is largely offered for free. Traditional, paid-subscription e-zines have a hard time competing when so many sites are offering blogs, articles and other pieces of content on every single subject under the sun (and even those in shadow) which anyone can easily access.
As text-based content grows more popular, the e-zines of old have begun to evolve and change to keep up with changing trends and the stiff competition for readers. Some e-zines have changed to remain relevant, while others have simply fallen by the wayside in the wake of new Internet trends.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions on the Internet are still highly common, but these days they’re called RSS feeds. By using these buttons, Internet users can choose to receive new posts from the pages and blogs they favor. The content is automatically sent to them via email or through an online reader.
The user doesn’t even have to go to the trouble of visiting a Web site for the words they want and frequently-updated content. These simple, and generally free, RSS feeds make traditional, paid e-zine subscriptions seem old and clumsy by comparison -- if not unnecessary and overpriced.
Blogs
Blogs, short for Web logs, have grown increasingly popular over recent years. These days, almost every highly-popular Web site boasts a blog. Many blogs stand on their own with no supporting Web site, and some companies thrive on offering free blogs to the public.
Frequently updated, personable and enriched with graphics and videos, blogs are great sources of readable, interesting text. This makes blogs great sources of content, a great tool for driving search engine traffic.
Blogs, for the most part, are also free for anyone to read and enjoy at their leisure. Many blogs, of course, take advantage of RSS feeds and offer easy online subscriptions to their readers. In some ways, e-zines were the precursors to blogs -- and now blogs are starting to take over, and take the place of e-zines.
This newly-evolved form of content is free for anyone to read and enjoy. It’s hard for the traditional, seemingly more old-fashioned, e-zines to stay relevant when so many sites are offering fresh, new blog posts every single day.
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