[Overview]
The first electronic versions of print newspapers were available in the
early 1990s through commercial services like America Online and
CompuServe. In 1995, newspapers and magazines began creating their own
websites to offer a partial or full version of their latest
issue - available freely or through subscription (free or paid) - with
online archives. In Europe, the Times and the Sunday Times set up a
common website called Times Online, with a way to create a personalized
edition. The weekly publication The Economist also went online in UK,
as well as the weekly Focus and the weekly Der Spiegel in Germany, the
daily Le Monde and daily Libération in France, and the daily El País in
Spain. The computer press went logically online as well, like the
monthly Wired, created in 1992 in California to cover cyberculture as
"the magazine of the future at the avant-garde of the 21st century", or
ZDNet, another leading computer magazine. More and more "only"
electronic magazines were also created.
[In Depth (published in 1999)]
The first electronic versions of newspapers were available in the early
1990s through commercial services like America Online or CompuServe.
Then, in 1995, newspapers and magazines began to create websites to
offer the full version of their latest issue - available freely or
through subscription (free or paid) - which was then archived online.
There were also heated debates on copyright issues for articles posted
on the web. More and more "only" electronic magazines were created.
In 1996, the New York Times site could be accessed free of charge. It
included the contents of the daily newspaper, breaking news updates
every ten minutes, and original reporting available only online. The
Washington Post site provided the daily news online, with a full
database of articles including images, sound and video.
In Europe, the Times and the Sunday Times set up a common website
called Times Online, with the possibility to create a personalized
edition. The respected Economist was also available online, as were the
French daily newspapers Le Monde and Libération, the Spanish daily
newspaper El País or the German weekly magazines Focus or Der Spiegel.
The computer press went online as well. First the monthly Wired,
created in 1992 in California to focus on cyberculture and be the
magazine of the future at the avant-garde of the 21st century. Then
ZDNet, a main publisher of computer magazines.
Behind the news, the web was providing a whole encyclopedia to help us
understand them. The web was providing instant access to a wealth of
information (geographical maps, biographical notes, official texts,
political and economic data, audiovisual and video data); speed in
information dissemination; access to main photographic archives; links
to articles, archives and data on the same topic; and a search engine
to browse articles by date, author, title, subject, etc.
From the start, there were also all these zines using the internet as a
cheap way to get published. John Labovitz launched The E-Zine-List in
Summer 1993 to list electronic zines (e-zines) around the world, the
ones that were accessible via the web, FTP, gopher, email, and other
services. The list was updated monthly.
What exactly is a zine? John Labovitz explained on his website: "For
those of you not acquainted with the zine world, 'zine' is short for
either 'fanzine' or 'magazine', depending on your point of view. Zines
are generally produced by one person or a small group of people, done
often for fun or personal reasons, and tend to be irreverent, bizarre,
and/or esoteric. Zines are not 'mainstream' publications - they
generally do not contain advertisements (except, sometimes,
advertisements for other zines), are not targeted towards a mass
audience, and are generally not produced to make a profit. An 'e-zine'
is a zine that is distributed partially or solely on electronic
networks like the internet."
3,045 zines were listed on November 29, 1998. John wrote on his
website: "Now the e-zine world is different. The number of e-zines has
increased a hundredfold, crawling out of the FTP and Gopher woodworks
to declaring themselves worthy of their own domain name, even asking
for financial support through advertising. Even the term 'e-zine' has
been co-opted by the commercial world, and has come to mean nearly any
type of publication distributed electronically. Yet there is still the
original, independent fringe, who continue to publish from their heart,
or push the boundaries of what we call a 'zine'." John stopped updating
his list a few years later.