Why a subscription? (2001)

Article ca. 2001

A web site is a publishing venture.

It offers economies over the 19th century models in that it doesn't require printing and distribution of paper.

Advantages

Lower manufacturing cost

Lower distribution cost

More environmentally friendly

However, does this mean there is no cost in e-publishing?

Not so - there are significant technical, service and labour costs incurred.

Service Costs

Web hosting and security.

Bandwidth - the website owner pays for each page, image and video viewed by readers.

Legal and accounting costs.

Labour costs

Editorial

Journalists

Technical experts

Graphic artists

Web programmers

Marketing

Customer service

Like print publishing, e-publishing may be a small scale effort or large scale effort. It may be specialist or generalist in focus. Each publication will have different standards of presentation and editorial.