Magazines... (re)born on the Web.

The Web seems like a great place for a weekly or monthly publication to offer supplementary services to its subscribers. It's also well-suited to addressing a "niche market" or narrowly defined audience, which has been true of magazine publishing in recent years. The WELL, a computer conferencing system that isn't very magazine-like, actually was founded by the folks behind the Whole Earth catalog and magazine. (The name is an acronym for Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link.) If you only associate those publications with tree-hugging and yurt-building hippies, you may be surprised to learn the WELL started in 1985, long before the Internet-as-we-know-it.

Here are a few other specialized publications marking their niche online:

• Adbusters is a magazine with a very interesting mission, both in print and online.
• Mother Jones, a good source of progressive media criticism.
• The National Review, from the ideologically other side of the street.
• Educom Review--A source of technology news related to education, this magazine is supplemented with an email mailing list.
• Dirty Linen folk and world music, perhaps not the first topic you'd expect to find online..
• Soundings "The nation's boating newspaper," now focuses on its used-boat advertising and coming-events listings. For awhile, Soundings had samples of its news stories online (including a few I wrote.

As might be expected, computer and Internet-oriented magazines were among the first to take advantage of the synergy between the new and old media.

• Wired and spin-offs like HotWired quickly became promoters of the Web online as well as in print, and may really belong in the "born on the Web" category below.
• IDG (home of computer magazines with names like PC World, and whatever-World)
• Ziff-Davis, home of PC Magazine, PC Week, and more.
• MacWorld has a ZD address and an IDG-sounding name. Go figure.

Like newspapers, general-interest magazines also took an interest in the Web pretty early, including Time and other Time-Warner publications. They are all together at Pathfinder.com. (Historical note: Both CNN and Time-Warner had well-established Web operations when the companies merged.)

Finally, here's another "born on the Web" site that bridges between in-print and online publishing: Electronic Newsstand, which uses the Internet to sell old-fashioned magazine subscriptions.