With yet another change in the life of the Rubber Axe webzine I’m using this opportunity to think – through words – about the usual: the past, present and the future of this little medium.
To be honest with you (and if know me then you know I am honest with you always), I’ve always preferred a printed medium, and the reason is basically the same discussion about physical versus digital. A lot of people don’t see the value of physical item as a collectable, the time period piece with a value to the owner/collector, which is – at least for me (and I know I am not alone in this) – possibly the heaviest argument in the discussion, and, of course, the question of actually “owning the content” I am paying for is getting more and more important with disappearance/deletion of streaming channels, changes in the archives of the streaming service providers etc.
So far, so good. Back in the day, with the experience of publishing a print publication, obvious choice was to continue that way. The major obstacle back then – and what’s growing into even a bigger one – was the prohibitive cost of postage, which basically made the whole issue of self-publishing (other than using print-on-demand services as CreateSpace, Lulu and others) a no-go – unless you are a lone fanatic doing it for the sake of doing it, losing money along the way.
So, obviously, web publishing is where it’s at. Enters the Rubber Axe webzine, 2018.
I’m not gonna deny that the expectation were quite different from the initial output. Sounds familiar? I will not go to details, suffice to say that really soon was evident that things needed a shake-up, along with a big jump in the knowledge, especially a technical expertise. What a challenge! I loved it and still love the thrill of learning something useful, which – in turn – can be put into the operation and you can see the actual results pretty soon, almost immediately. That’s not going to change anytime soon. Everything evolves and the Rubber Axe webzine evolves as well.
It’s May 2020 now and the webzine enters its next phase. 2 years is enough to find strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, to find one’s own voice and to follow the heart. Yes, I’ve said it – to follow the heart. Because this is a work of love, the love for the side of culture many people don’t even known it exists.
So, yes, the whiteboard on the wall is full of coloured ideas and thoughts, the question marks and notes, music is blasting (just a little), the research for new articles continues, website is being optimized…times,they’re a-changin’ indeed. And that’s great.
Oh, what about the future, you ask? Have I forgotten about it? No, I haven’t. You just have to wait and see for yourselves.