I seem to have a different perspective. I don’t like reading articles online. The occasional big show reports I do enjoy as I can often find the results elsewhere but sometimes want more than the numbers. I do subscribe to the print version. I wouldn’t subscribe to an online version. I like being able to read in bed, on the metro, in the bathtub. I can’t do that with an online magazine.
I have never been a subscription holder for COTH in print. I had always felt it had so much “east coast” reference that I might not feel it was relevant. The exposure through this BB had changed my perspective. I like the online subscription idea.
I had just been thinking about posting, and still may, a thread regarding an “index” of old printed articles in other publication. Something on an annual basis, like Equus did years ago. I, too, have years of magazines semi organized by the year, but have no reference to their content.
How difficult could it be to catalog the title pages and cross link searches to topic? I say as if I have a clue how to do that. Another consumer friendly feature I would love.
Is this feature out there somewhere and I just don’t know where to look?
When I subscribed to the print version of COTH I enjoyed looking at the results of the shows. As Canter pointed out, if you live too far away, it takes forever to get the magazine. That’s why I don’t subscribe anymore, but on line, I could get the current information. I would subscribe!
Let’s see…
If there were an online subscription to COTH, I would probably subscribe, depending on the price. I currently subscribe to 2 online magazines, & honestly I probably wouldn’t make it 3… I’d probably drop my least favorite.
I loved your Olympic coverage! That would be a terrific format to follow for coverage of important events/shows.
Weekly, I particularly enjoy “In the Country” & “Between Rounds”. I check out the articles in the table of contents, & sometimes read them, sometimes not, depending on the subject matter. An archive of articles is a must! I never look at results or classifieds. I also enjoy participating in the Forums.
Hope this helps!
[This message has been edited by Helen (edited 10-07-2000).]
I’m doing a little bit of brainstorming here… so I’m going to recruit some thoughts from all of you as well. 
We’re trying to look ahead a little bit and make plans for this website’s future. We were really pleased with how the online coverage of the Olympics went, and in this day and age, I think it’s obvious that a lot of attention needs to be paid to the Internet.
So… what would you guys like to see in the Chronicle Online? Short-term and long-term. How would you like the website and magazine to complement each other? If we offered an online-only subscription, would you be interested? Would you want archives of recent articles? What about results? What parts of this site do you use most? What features of other websites do you like?
Any changes will probably be a long way off, but we’d love to hear ideas… so let 'em rip!
Cactuskate, we do have an index, and for the first time this year, it was included in the magazine. (Before we sold them separately… which no one knew anyway, so no one bought them.)
The indexes through 1998 are online. At least, the ones that were done on our new computers that I could easily convert to HTML. I think it’s 1996 onward. I haven’t had time to do 1999 and the first half of 2000 yet, but they’ll be up in a few weeks. You can find them through the archives section of the site.
Canter, HTML is very difficult to use for any sort of layout… the language was just not meant for that. It can be done, but it’s difficult! And often, I think, trying to be fancy makes things look worse, not better. In general, web publications are not as easy to read as paper, which is why it’s hard for them to survive.
J. Turner, the major cost of photos is paying the photographer, although there is also a cost to print them. (Not as much, I don’t think.) More photos online might be a possibility.
Please keep the comments coming! 
Well, all of you seem concerned about the mechanical technicalities, I for one being a total neophyte would not worry about those things.
What I find largely lacking in the coverage of most magazines and the Chronicle is not an exception is interest in the 98% of the competitiors who are not important people.
I would hope that on-line the production costs would be so much less that perhaps there would be time and space for the less important, and less influential.
The Chronicle was built by the fact that it was the only publication that printed complete results all the time. The benefit of that was that a lot of very unimportant people had their name published in the Chronicle.
It was a reason to buy the magazine. I think that while the Chronicle needs to cater to the wealthy and the influential perhaps the On-Line magazine could be a place where everyday people would have the opporuntiy to explain why they were in the sport, what they liked about it and what they hated.
I would hope that the on-line could be more expressive of the minority opinions that have not been respected anywhere because those ideas and opinions come from people who while intelligent and possibly talented are rarely considered.
All the other magazines deal with the rich and famous, and this might be just unique enough to be a winner.
Erin, whats the big deal about advertising?> Why can’t we, or why can’t we have a special post room for classifieds? I bet it would get alot of visits! PLEASE!! 
Thx,
AGI definitely would subscribe to an online edition of the magazine.
Erin, I wasn’t referring to “fancy” I was referring to white space! Webzines have this nasty habit of trying to cram too much stuff onto each page which contributes to making it hard to read.
Regardless, more photos are an excellent idea. There can never be enough. How about regular features on special farms? Kinda like InStyle magazine meets manure?
I like the idea of other forums. I feel it would be helpful to have a tack/clothing/equipment section for sharing information.
I am always interested in other opinions about suppliments, fly sprays, nice tack and comfortable, long wearing breeches!!
I think I can answer that one, AG – the Chronicle makes a lot of money off of classified ads in the magazine, and they need that money to be able to publish. So they can’t give ads away on the website, at least not for free.
