I’ve been fighting with the questions I pose in the title for this post for quite a long time. E-zines, or online magazines, are relevant in regard to costs and ease/speed of communication. They are digital publications in the truest sense.

I work in journalism and mass communications, public relations and whatnot. I teach students about creating tools to publicize, publicly communicate, and strategically reach target audiences. One of the discussions often brought up among students and colleagues alike surrounds the concept of a paperless society, the death of newspapers and other publications, and what seems to be a general disregard of the potential relevancy of digital publishing.

I’ve fought with this as I continue to morph and evolve PCOS Today Magazine. It’s been in PDF form in the past. It’s been strictly online, but I haven’t been able to create a thoroughly interactive quality to it, and it’s been in hard copy (which I’ve been griped at about cost vs. amount of content). I wonder sometimes that with the sheer breadth of information available, that we in society expect the information to be freely available. Information is king, as long as it doesn’t cost a thing.

So what is needed for PCOS Today Magazine? I’m still quite comfortable with the idea of it being strictly an online publication, an e-zine. I’m finding that advertisers are more excited about reaching readers online than in the “standard” hard-copy format…which as an old desktop publisher like me is still a little surprised (but secretly giddy) about. I also think I’ve *finally* found a content management system (squarespace.com) that a student turned me on to, that will work. It will help provide the page-by-page, interactive content that readers want with the ease of content management that I need (because my Web skills are still a work in progress). Every time I finish a new design or content upload for PTM, I like to think I can sit back and relax, rest on my laurels. If I’ve learned anything through this experience, it’s that it’s always, run, run, run, and content, content, content. It’s obviously time to bring it all together.

Thank you for indulging me this publishing rant. Now back to our regularly scheduled PCOS discussions…