If you want to read some articles from your favorite magazine, all you need is an Internet connection, and some free time, since just about every popular printed magazine has an online equivalent.
By Linda Orlando
Now that just about everyone has access to the Internet, everyone also has access to hundreds of online magazines, many of which are online versions of widely popular magazines, people have read in printed form for decades. Most online magazines require a subscription to view all the articles they contain, although they usually offer a few choice articles for free to entice people to subscribe to their print versions.
With a quick search you can find online versions of many mainstays of American magazine culture:
- Time (http://www.time.com) provides its online visitors with many articles from its current issue, as well as an archive of past issues that can be searched, all for free.
- Better Homes & Gardens (http://www.bhg.com) is a favorite source of useful information about things such as home decorating, cooking, gardening, health, and family, and the site includes a virtual store containing a nice array of housewares, books, children’s items, and gifts. Their online magazine is free to join, and includes the option of signing up for free weekly newsletters.
- Reader’s Digest (http://www.rd.com) serves up just an index to the current issue, but provides articles and special sections that aren’t available in the print edition.
- Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com) is a mainstay of American pop culture, and its online magazine is no exception. Full of movie reviews, celebrity gossip, DVD reviews, and other entertainment-related content, this is one online magazine that you can easily spend a lot of time browsing through.
- Popular Science (http://www.popsci.com) is chock full of articles about science, medicine, computers, space and aeronautics, and other topics that are on the cutting edge of technology.
- Forbes Magazine (http://www.forbes.com), the granddaddy of business magazines, is a must-view for online visitors looking for the latest and most important information about consumer finance, personal investing, technology, and the stock market. The home pages displays current stock market updates and up-to-the-minute AP Business News articles.
This is just a sampling of the many online magazines that are available to supplement, or even replace the printed magazines you subscribe to. The obvious benefit of online magazines is that you can read many of the articles for free, but the downside is that, there are usually articles in the printed version that are not available online. Also the online articles are posted to the site for a limited amount of time, so you can’t set them aside to pick up later whenever you have time, unless the site offers an archive of past issues.
Still, the main allure of the online versions is that you can enjoy many different magazines at once, without having to subscribe to them all. Not only do they save you money, you won’t have to deal with stacks of unread magazines piling up in the corner!
For links to over 1000 free online magazines, visit http://www.magatopia.com, a virtual magazine rack that provides links to Internet magazines with free current articles for you to read online. The categories available are endless: men’s, women’s, teen, travel, celebrities, home and garden, automotive, lifestyle, business, and other popular genres. You can even find magazines in specialty categories such as golf, baseball, astrology, and Pokemon-all with just one click of your mouse.
Most people enjoy the thrill that comes from receiving the latest issue of their favorite magazine in the mail, and they eagerly thumb through it soon after bringing it in the house. Old habits die-hard, so the most popular American magazines will probably always be around in print version to grace mailboxes weekly or monthly. But because more and more people are seeking and finding entertainment and information on the Internet, online magazines may be the wave of the future.