The word “e-zine” consists of two contracted words which together represent what an e-zine is. These two words are electronic and magazine, so an e-zine is an electronic magazine. E-zines can also be compared to internet email newsletters. After subscription by a person wanting to know more about a certain subject / theme, the magazine / newsletter (already for sale in a kiosk or completely new) gets send to that person’s email-address and he/she can thus read electronically. Electronic magazines tend to be send periodically, so mostly every day, week or month. The electronic mail newsletters normally do not get send periodically, but only when there is ‘news’ to be communicated.
E-zines can be distributed in two different ways: one way is via mail only. This means that the whole text of the magazine / newsletter along with pictures etc. gets send to the email address of the person who is subscribed. The second manner in which e-zines get distributed is via an internet-based link to the subscribed person’s mail address, people can thus click on this link and read the e-zine on a particular website. Access to this website can be secured by having to submit a password before being able to read the e-zine. This online form of e-zines is referred to as webzine as well.
People familiar with the concept of e-zines tend to be young and computer-minded, these youngsters are either really enthusiastic about this new internet based idea or they just do not see the added value of the whole phenomenon. Proponents really like the ease and the fact that it represents a free service, while detractors say that a big disadvantage is that e-zines are not interactive and the danger of viruses is prominent.
E-zines are attractive to ‘publish’/ distribute for companies and for individuals because of the advertising possibilities and thereby revenue. Also, the number of ‘hits’ on the particular companies’/ individuals’ website is increased and the advertisement gets seen by the target customers directly. This is because the person viewing the e-zine and thereby the advertisements has subscribed for this, this means he/she is genuinely interested in this topic. This is also what sets apart e-zines from spam.
So the question about the e-zine which remains is: will this new way of publishing and thereby advertising be a big hit? Most people do not think so, because before e-zines could have reached the big public, it had already been surpassed by its new and improved version: the weblog.
Improved and thereby more popular because a blog is interactive and does not have to pass your spam filter first. This is mainly because blogs have taken over the role of e-zines by not only informing people about their main interests, keeping them up to date but also actually interacting with people, who are able to react on blogs.
But most importantly, you can make and customize your own blog and this can not be said for e-zines.
(500 words)
Sources:
http://www.mroverdeliver.com/ezine/
http://www.avantrex.com/business/ezines.html
http://www.ezine-dir.com/
