As of this week, Fringe Magazine has a gorgeous new look: a new website design, new content in its summer issue, and a new look and feel to its blog! Designed by Emerson MA Alum Daniel Quinn, Fringe’s website really sets a new bar for what’s possible in online literary magazines, blogs, and centers for web publishing. Check it out now at fringemagazine.org!  To celebrate the relaunch, I asked Fringe Editor-in-Chief Lizzie Stark to weigh in with her thoughts on Fringe’s new presence on the web.

KL: How does this new site better encompass the Fringe Magazine mission?

LS:  In addition to taking advantage of the online medium to promote and package the writers we publish in a visually compelling way, this site offers us room to grow.  Aside from the kicky new look, we’re finally taking advantage of the online medium by using it to its fullest.  I like to think of it as Fringe 2.0. We’re using a lot of geeky widgets to make the site more navigable and to drive traffic to more of our great content. Here’s a cheat sheet of our newest features:

• Now that it’s so easly to publish, we’ll be posting new work more or less weekly instead of quarterly (although work will still be organized into quarterly issues) to keep readers coming back to our site.

• “More in this issue” and “more in this genre” widgets will help readers easily find more content that they like.

• The new site fosters dialogue between the zine and its readers through our “readers recommend” widget, our email and social networking functions, and through the blog posts that will be associated with individual pieces.

• From the back end, tagging literary pieces makes our site more searchable. Plus, now you can search the site all on your own through our search bar.

KL: How did the new design evolve?

LS: Fringe has been through two site designs, and each one has its benefits and its drawbacks. On the front end of the site, we knew we wanted the pages with individual work on them to be clean and readable. We also wanted to incorporate art onto some of the pages as a design element to add some visual interest, and we wanted to take advantage of new technology to drive traffic and keep readers on our site. What ensued was a lot phone and email discussion between Daniel and the editors until we winnowed down the layout, and then a lot of friendly argument about the design. The editors exchanged more than 50 emails about font alone. The whole staff is really pleased with how the final product turned out.

There aren’t enough superlatives in the world to explain how great it was to work with Daniel. He has a very clear process for developing a website, answered all our questions at every point in the process and let us know what was possible and what wasn’t. In addition to knowing his code inside and out, and having a knack for organizing content, he also has a great design sensibility. He added a lot of extras to the site that we wouldn’t have known to ask for.

KL: The Fringe Blog and literary magazine are linked organically now. How will that help the two coexist together?

LS:  For starters, you won’t have to jump to another site to see the great content our bloggers are producing for us. The blog started out small, but it’s become an integral part of Fringe ever since we brought Jill D’Urso on board as our blog editor. Jill, who also blogs for Vernacular, has really been a steward for the blog and expanded its mission. Moving forward, we’re hoping to provide more editorial content on the blog such as mini reviews, profiles of our contributors, and interviews with other editors and authors.

In addition to providing space for readers to comment on content in the magazine, the blog is also a great place for impromptu projects, such as our impromptu tribute to John Updike, where we had former Fringe contributors write in about the late great writer, or like the 25 Books Project.

KL: What’s next for Fringe?

LS:  The big challenge for any small journal is to keep its enthusiasm and momentum. Our overall mission will continue to be to publish the best Fringey literature we can find, and to create thought-provoking editorial content on the blog and in our new features section. We have grand plans, of course, to secure enough funding to pay our writers and editors and potentially to offer daily content, but in the meantime we’ll be content just to get used to our new site and new schedule.

Tags:   Daniel Quinn · e-publishing · fringe magazine · fringe magazine blog · kim · literary magazines · Lizzie StarkNo Comments