Magazining Online? Here's How

by Carol Holstead

If you want people to read your magazine online, you have to adapt to the medium. You should not just put a publication online; you should create an online publication.

Your magazine won't attract readers over the long run if you merely dump your print version onto the Web. Even so, that's how roughly half of all online magazines are created, according to a recent survey of online magazine editors by Kathleen Endres at the University of Akron.

Here's how to make the editorial content on your Web site worthy of your print version.

Define Your Mission

Even if your Web site will be tied to the print version of your magazine, you need to write a mission statement for the site and a profile of its intended audience. The Web site might strive to attract new readers, or add value to the print magazine. It might serve as a news and information site or exist primarily to extend the magazine's brand. Whatever the case, the mission will determine the content, as well as the resources required to fulfill it.

At the National Geographic Society, nationalgeographic.com is trying to add value to its print counterpart, says online editor-in-chief Mark Holmes. "We want people who read the magazine to get as much out of the site as people who don't. We also want to attract people into the magazine." To that end, nationalgeographic.com provides resources not available in the magazine, including a map machine, experts' answers to reader questions, access to the society's library catalog, a search engine for locating articles in the magazine and an online store.

Develop Web-savvy Content

There are two important things to keep in mind when developing content for the Web, says Roger Black, founder of the Interactive Bureau, a Web and print design firm. One is that most people do not surf the Internet, but use it as an information source. "The Web was invented for scientists and research librarians, and providing information is still what it does best," Black says. The other is that the Internet is a reader-driven, two-way medium.

What this means, Black says, is that the best online magazines are information-oriented, allow readers to tailor their content and are interactive.

MacWEEK's mission is to provide readers with industry news; as a result, editors update the Web version every day. MacWEEK heightens its information value by offering links to related stories in other magazines within its parent company, MacPublishing LLC, and to sources outside the company. "We want people to believe they can get the best external links by coming to MacWEEK first," says Matthew Rothenberg, director of editorial content.

Like MacWEEK, the online magazines of Time Inc. are updated daily to accomplish their news-information mission. Time's sites also will provide links within the company's publications, and without, following one rule of thumb: The links have to offer worthwhile, relevant content. "You have to exercise editorial judgment in selecting links, just as you would in selecting stories," says Dan Okrent, Time Inc.'s editor of New Media.

Edit for the Web

If you want your online magazine to sustain readership, you need to edit it so that it accommodates the Web's attributes, including its capacity for interactivity and hypertext links. You also need to consider that most people scan Web pages instead of reading them word for word, according to research conducted by the Nielsen Norman Group, a consulting firm that studies Internet users. As a result, linear approaches to storytelling don't work; stories need be offered in bite-sized pieces that readers can put together any way they choose.

In his book Web Sites That Work, Black offers a model for the nonlinear story. "Imagine the main story to be like the hub of a wheel and the other elements to be spokes. It should not matter where you begin, nor should it matter if you leap from spoke to spoke (via hyperlinks) and never reach the hub."

Jakob Nielsen, a principal in the Nielsen Norman Group, offers guidance and research on his site, Alertbox (www.useit.com).

• Short text: Nielsen and Web editors recommend that stories on the Web run half the length or less that they would in print.
  
  
• Pull quotes and captions are more important online than in print.
  
  
• Scannable text: Nielsen recommends that Web editors highlight key words, write substantive subheads, use bulleted lists and put only one idea in each paragraph.
  
  
• Hypertext links: Make each link focus on a specific topic within a larger story. Do not use hypertext links to break up a long linear story into multiple pages.

This article is an edited version of one that originally appeared in Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management in June 1999. Carol Holstead is an associate professor of journalism