[Dixielandjazz] New, On-line Free MS Rag

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Leslie Johnson, editor of the Mississippi Rag a monthly newsmag. featuring
traditional
jazz, sent this notice at my request.
I am pleased that it is now FREE online and will get wider distribution. 
I've
been
a longtime subscriber both to the Miss. Rag and the American Rag, a
California Jazz
monthly also primarily featuring traditional jazz.  After Miss. Rag ceased
its print
edition, I subscribed for the online edition.  There are certain features
that I
miss-it's easier for me to read a print edition.  But, on the other hand,
photos
are in color in the online edition, a definite plus.
Here is the notice which Leslie Johnson sent at my request. As stated, it's
now FREE
and you can e-mail her to be put on the list for notification each month
when new
edition is ready.
Leslie Johnson wrote:
The Mississippi Rag, now in its 35th year as "The Voice of Traditional Jazz
and Ragtime,"
is now free on its website,
www.mississippirag.com
, in a very user friendly format. The latest transformation of the RAG took
place
in January 2008. For the year prior to that, the RAG was online but in a PDF
format
available only to subscribers. Now it's free to anyone who logs onto
www.mississippirag.com
. Readers are encouraged to write to
editor at mississippirag.com
 if they want to be notified each month when the new issue is available.
Both the latest change and the previous change (from a printed tabloid which
was
mailed to 26 countries), were precipitated by the need to lessen the
workload of
editor/publisher Leslie Johnson, who has been fighting a rare form of cancer
since
mid-2005. Until her editorials announced the various changes, many readers
weren't
aware that the RAG actually is produced by a one-person editorial staff
(Leslie)
with occasional help from her sister, Jody. Articles, reviews and columns
are written
by freelancers, not a resident staff.
The health challenges, coupled with with increased printing prices,
two-digit hikes
in second-class postal rates and the elimination of surface mail to
destinations
outside the U.S., led to dropping the print RAG altogether, but the move to
an online
RAG allowed for extensive use of color and other innovative techniques. An
online
distributor was used for the PDF version of the RAG but isn't necessary
anymore now
that the RAG is free off its website..
The new free RAG includes many of the same kind of historical articles,
festival
coverage, interviews, photos, columns, and listings that were featured in
both the
printed and PDF-online RAGs. The look and feel of the previous RAGs has been
retained,
but, with the new web-based format, it's easier to read and print, thanks to
the
efforts of webmaster Jeff Holman and Dave Lindquist of Protype Design. Ad
revenue
is expected to cover the costs of producing the RAG. Each page includes ads
which
are hyperlinked to websites. The ads also can be enlarged to their own
separate pages
as a convenience for printing them out to make reservations for the various
events.
The response to the new RAG has been very positive, and traffic to the
website has
been heavy, with more than 6500 visitors checking out the January RAG within
its
first three weeks online -- good news for advertisers. (That issue is still
available
for viewing.) The February RAG was released Feb. 10, and 2500 visitors have
already
checked it out in just the first five days, so the RAG's future looks
bright.