Are Blogs the New E-zines?

When I was 'coming in' to the internet culture, Zines were at their peak and just starting to fade out.

I grew up reading MA-wired and the TheForce.Net, which used to be an E-zine (not even sure what it is now--appearantly it is daily news).

But after the 90s ended and I started Uni, I noticed that sites like Riposte started making more sense, giving different information in a more practical format.

E-Zines like MA-wired were stand-alone websites that ran on a magazine-on-the-web model. They generated or recruited their own content (some good, some bad--heck, I was published in MA-wired, and I know as much about Martial Arts as Aristotle knew about writing with clarity). With that content, either from independent sources or their readership, they usually created a 'publishing schedule' and would then pipe this information to the readership at a fixed time frame (once a week, or once a month, etc).

You waited patiently for your update cycle to end, then checked the site and read all the new articles that interested you. Just like waiting for a magazine to arrive and then thumbing through it.

Now, I think we can all agree that the e-zine is a thing of the past. It was a good way to transition from printed text. It didn't challenge people's standards too much, and provided a comfortable move to internet publishing that didn't scare or confuse the readers. But it obviously was not the best way to drop editorial and news writing on the readership.

In the place of Zines, the Weblog has arrived. These daily-update sources like Gizmodo, Kotaku, OnRobo and DefenseTech are where I go for my information and commentary.

The new system is very different. It provides a different, less-editorial and more focused structure for the news-based Blogs, because they are all really just collection-points. They are mini-portals (to use another 90s word) for news in a specific area. Since someone else is doing the searching for you, you no longer have to waste your time trying to collect all the news on a topic that interests you--just find a blog that focuses on that topic. In addition, the commentary (be it derisive, jovial, or just a little extra info as background) is generally more reasonable and focused because it is attached to a particular news story.

These advantages are great, and make News Blogs a fantastic way to keep up with a sector of industry or particular community. They can be quite handy.

In addition, there are personal Blogs. Rather than an E-zines collection of the month writings of 30 people, you get access to the daily musings of a single person.

In many cases (such as my own blog that you're reading now) I feel these are pretty much useless. They allow you to consider life in general from someone elses point of view, but much like the difference between a photograph and a snapshot, unless you know the author, they are rarely worth your time to investigate--they don't apply to everyone.

There are, of course, exceptions, focused personal blogs. These are doing quite well in certain areas. The first that comes to mind is The Big White Guy blog since he restricts almost all of his writing to one topic - being a Guai Lo (Foreigner) and living in Hong Kong.

These are far more often, like a photographer taking their first shots of sculpture or landscapes, likely to appeal to a wider audience and have a real connection with the readership.

I think that in the long run, America's fascination with having their own soapboxes will continue, and many personal, unfocused blogs will remain, even after the 'fad' fades out, but I think that for those who have some reasonable expectations for their lives and from what they read, they'll stick mostly for focused personal work like BWG and News and Link blogs like Gizmodo. I think their implementation at this stage will shape the future of the non-commercial internet.

I'm intrigued, and even tempted to try and start my own.