By Christopher J. Garcia
Less is happening in traditional fanzines. Now, much of it happens on blogs, twitter and facebook. Positive and negative: more people in the fandom community are participating in the art of writing but they are attracting a narrower audience - many see it as a dated artefact.
I think this could be because there is so much out there on the Web now that people don't know where to start. This makes it difficult to get an audience.
Blogs feel less complete in that each post is separate whereas a zine is all linked together.
Some issues are publishing a paper edition as well as a blog to go alongside it.
There are some writers that live in both worlds but often the material they produce for each form is much different than for the other. Zines today are places where content that is meant to stand through time ends up. Blog posts don't go beyond the first page of posts. A zine has permanence - it is there waiting for notice even if they were often ignored. Some see fanzines as being outmoded passed in importance by blogs that can carry the latest info as quickly as possible.
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