"Magazine articles versus Blogs or similar" Topic

Hi,

It's exciting and sometimes downright depressing to see how many views an after-action report gets when it is posted online.

It's also exciting to receive almost instantaneous feedback or comments about posted material.

I wonder . . . would an author/contributor have more readers if he (or she) penned a piece for BGw/MG, WI, or another title, or would he (or she) have more readers if the material was posted on a Blog or some similar electronic forum?

Thanks in advance for your input/thoughts.

Chris

Well, articles that I've had published in the past in magazines have hardly ever resulted in feedback, but on TMP I've got 68 stifles… more readers from a printed mag, far less feedback.

I only have proof that one article I wrote for a magazine ever really took off – someone in Australia took my idea and really ran with it – built a website showing what he'd done over about 10 years, and yes, I felt a little glow in the old ego.

Course, he didn't credit me – but there was a scan of the article on his page !

I think they al have their place. I remember talking to a chap at a show who had built some Vietnam style buildings and I asked him how. He said he'd read an article in Miniature Wargames about how to make them and I felt pleased when I knew it was the article I'd written.

I think that people buy a magazine and read them – even flick through them – in a way that they simply don't with blogs and web sites in general but I think they all have a place: I wouldn't dream of writing an AAR up as a magazine article in a printed publication. That's what forums, blogs and websites are for.

As for stifles on TMP… that's a whole extra can of worms!

John T