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These Qs & As (FAQ) will help you get a better handle on what MagWeb.com is accomplishing.

Price for 2008!

MagWeb retains the same low membership price for 2008 as 2007. Join Now!

Membership	2007 Price	New 2008 Price
3 months	$29	$29
6 months	$39	$39
12 months	$49	$49

What is MagWeb.com?

MagWeb.com is short for Magazine Web, and provides the full text and graphics of military history and related magazines (current and back issues) in electronic form on the Internet World Wide Web. One low membership fee allows password access to all magazines in the MagWeb.com archive.

MagWeb.com also offers "bonus" articles (extra articles the magazines didn't have room for), original articles (from the MagWeb.com staff), and "War Lore" articles (contributed by members) that are not found in the magazines. Such articles include battlefield virtual tours, memoirs, sample book chapters, news, book and game reviews, and historical summaries.

Note: MagWeb.com's archive does NOT include the advertising from the magazines. It also does not include banner adverts, pop-up adverts, interstitial adverts, skyscrapers, or any other adverts. Like a premium cable movie channel, you're paying to avoid commercials, not be hounded by them.

What do you mean "full text and graphics"?

Just that. Full text means every feature article, editorial, review, column, excerpt, order of battle, letter to the editor, and other non-advertisement. On rare occasions, we cannot print an article that's reprinted from another magazine. For very old back issues, we also may drop certain time-sensitive items like a contest, upcoming convention list, special offers, and things like that. Full graphics means every map, photo, illustration, uniform, and other drawing accompanying the articles.

So my membership allows access to all the articles or just some?

All! You can read anything that's on MagWeb.com.

Do I have to pay a per-article fee?

NO! Once you pay your membership, you have access to all the articles in the archive. Our catch phrase is: "Pay one price, read all you want."

However, note that your membership is for you and you alone--and we've priced MagWeb.com at around $4 per month with a one-year membership so everyone can get their own MagWeb.com account and tap into this resource.

$4 per month is $48 per year. Is that expensive?

No. MagWeb.com is the best military history buy on the Web. But let's talk about pricing and costs.

First, MagWeb.com costs $49 per year.

$49 for a year is a damn fine bargain. The equivalent in print subscriptions is over $1000--not including the out-of-print magazines you can't find. Heck, $4 is the cover price of one issue--and you're getting over 300 issues per year! Of course, $49 will buy one computer game, or a couple pounds of unpainted lead soldiers, or a board game--most, I suspect, to be destined for a closet after a short trial. MagWeb.com is something you can use everyday, learn a heckuva lot from, grab a slew of ideas, save things in electronic form, and the best part: it continuously grows with new ideas and knowledge.

Second, MagWeb.com is a product no different from any other. Saying MagWeb.com should be "free" is like saying all the magazines should be sent to your home at no cost! Just as a magazine has printing and postage costs, so MagWeb.com has hardware, software, and telecommunication line costs, not to mention costs such as paying for credit card transactions, insurance, show tables, advertising, taxes, accounting, and other business costs. Also, MagWeb.com pays the magazines royalties for each article read. And, it's nice to actually pay the folks here at MagWeb.com for their full- and part-time efforts.

You see, MagWeb.com, or more properly Coalition Web, Inc., is a registered NJ state corporation (as of May 1, 1996) subject to state and federal laws, fees, and paperwork. All these above costs must be paid, or, there is no MagWeb.com.

And third, the Web is still a very time- and labor-intensive place to work. If you doubt that, look at all "zombie" sites--the files are there, but they haven't been updated in six months or more. MagWeb.com is my 70-hour-per-week, full-time job, and the equivalent of a full-time job to the other partners in this venture.

If you have ever done any scanning, OCRing, correcting, coding, graphics manipulation, programming, and so on, then you know how much effort it takes to turn a paper magazine into cross-linked HTML files, make it flow seamlessly into a clean, coherent design, and keep it maintained. Plus, we do sales, marketing, accounting, customer service, etc., etc.

Yeah, but a lot of stuff on the Web is free...

Very true. There is a lot on the Web that is "free" although the advertisements can get overwhelming at times. MagWeb.com has always been a "premium" site and will continue to charge a fee for accessing its archives.

Let me offer an analogy: The Web is like broadcast TV with plenty of "free" programs supported by plenty of adverts. Some of them are good, just like some network TV shows. But the "best" shows are on cable--either basic cable or premium cable stations, but cable nonetheless. You want The History Channel or A&E or Discovery or HBO? You pay for cable. MagWeb.com is the equivalent of a premium military history cable channel. Thus, we charge a membership fee for our premium, no-advert content.

And I might point out that when you watch the History Channel, you're paying a fee (basic cable or basic plus cable) AND having to suffer through commercials. How much? 14 minutes per hour. I was an on-camera expert on a couple of shows called Modern Marvels and learned quite a bit of behind the scenes info on how shows are put together. Run time is 46 minutes. That leaves 14 minutes for commercials. So, you're *paying* for 25% commercials.

Just how long does it take to get an issue up and running?

It depends upon the size of the magazine. On average, from start to finish, a typical 50-page magazine will take about 2 days (1 days if the publisher provides the text files). A small newsletter will take a half day, while a 192-page magazine can take up to 4 days. Much depends on the OCR quality--not every magazine laser prints 12-point Courier font! The smaller the font, the less accuracy, and hence, the more time correcting the scanned text.

How many issues per month are posted on MagWeb.com?

We're posting over 300 issues per year (about 16 cents an issue!). And the "bonus" articles such as book reviews, news, sample book chapters, offer even more information. Now you can see why MagWeb.com is the best military history bargain on the web!

So each issue is divided into separate article files?

Yes.

Why don't you just scan in the entire page?

It would certainly be faster for us to scan and code on a page basis, but a few things work against it...

You can't search on words in a graphic. Part of the appeal of MagWeb.com is "cherry picking" articles from a magazine using the search engine. Most members delve into our archive looking for one subject or topic. Slicing and dicing up the data allows them to find their interests faster.

You can't cut and paste individual parts from a graphic into a word processor. Think of it as the difference between a photocopy and a text file. Individual files for individual articles offers more flexibility for you.

Download time would crawl. Text is much, much, much faster than graphics. Print time would crawl too, and waste a lot more toner.

The Web is a different and unique medium than paper or TV or radio. MagWeb.com plays to its strengths and speed.

So, MagWeb.com is not an exact duplicate...

We duplicate content, but not format. An article on MagWeb.com is the same as an article in a magazine. The words are the same, the photos, etc. However, the MagWeb.com format is different.

For example, we use single columns of text instead of a magazine's 2- and 3-column format. Why? Reading multiple columns on screen means you have to scroll down the first column, then scroll up to the top of the next column, then scroll down to the bottom, and then scroll back up to the top of the next column, and so on. It's quite inefficient compared to a single column that you scroll down to read.

We use the capabilities of the Internet to fit the medium, speed things along, and give you the most flexibility.

What about PDF?

No PDF. Who wants to wait to download an entire issue if all you're going to do is read one article or one sidebar out of it? And I've noticed a lot more PDF files being "locked" so you can't extract partial information from them. One of MagWeb's best features is copy and paste of text into your word processor so you can use the info.

But the new browsers--

I see where you're going. Yes, new browsers are starting to incorporate PDF reading capabilities, but not everybody has new browsers. MagWeb.com is worldwide, and there are a significant number of browser and versions out there. We can't cut the others out. And you're still downloading excess data in PDF, slowing down your session.

How fast is MagWeb.com?

84 percent of our articles appear on your screen in under a minute on a 14.4 modem. If you have a faster modem, then articles will show up even faster. Of course, much depends upon the Web traffic, how far the data has to travel, and so on, but we're extraordinarily fast. Broadband users will see the articles pop onto their screen!

Anyway, can I print the articles out?

YES! You can also download the articles to your hard drive, or copy and paste portions of articles to your word processor. You can also save graphics to hard disk for later use in a drawing program. And of course, you can print articles out. Many of our members start file folders on topics and put the articles in them.

However, understand that copyright laws apply to all content in MagWeb.com and that the articles are for your own personal use. The magazines are pretty protective of their articles, and we support their efforts. If you cite an article in a research paper, footnote, or other bibliography, it is proper to cite the URL of MagWeb.com as the magazine article. You will note there are no page numbers listed in MagWeb.com--this allows us the flexibility of matching like content.

Do the magazines and issues stay up on MagWeb.com, or do you rotate the issues in and out?

We leave all the issues up so the archive for each magazine grows and grows. The only reason for issues and articles to disappear would be if the publisher decides not to continue on MagWeb.com at the end of the multi-year agreements that we sign. All but one have decided to stay so far, mostly because MagWeb.com is providing significant benefits to them.

What benefits? Why did the magazines join?

Two main reasons:

One, they get paid royalties for each article read. It is not a lot yet, but it is another source of revenue, especially for underutilized back issues.

Two, and more importantly, they gain worldwide PR and marketing exposure that they could not gain individually, and that draws new subscribers and new advertisers.

You see, a single magazine site is very difficult to draw attention to--but put 150++ magazines in a single site and you can get more attention. And we're pushing MagWeb.com into the general public's perception--and there's a lot of military history buffs out there that an individual magazine can't reach alone.

We firmly believe in strength in numbers--both for the magazines in our coalition and for our members who belong to MagWeb.com.

So, how much does MagWeb.com cost?

In US dollars:
3 month "Trial Period": $29
6 month "Attack Run": $39
12 month "Super Value": $49

Why the three membership lengths and cost differences?

It costs us just as much in time and effort to create an account for 3 months as it does for 6 or 12 months, so we figure we'd pass along savings to those who support MagWeb.com for a longer membership period. Plus, this is the Internet. We can provide flexibility in membership length.

Are you going to raise the price?

In honor of our 10th anniversary, we dropped the price on Jan. 1, 2006. So, everything will stay the same for a while. The more members we have, the less the need for a price increase.

How often do you update the site with new issues and magazines?

That's really two questions.

For issues, as we noted above, we have been posting 300+ issues per year (25+ issues per month), or about one every day or so. Because of background maintenance (including articles in the search engine database, updating the individual magazine pages and common pages, and so on), we usually upload twice to three times a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. We also update existing content (insert links to a series of articles, correct link typos, etc) on an as needed basis.

For new magazines, it depends. We bring in new magazines as fast as we convince publishers to sign an agreement making their publication part of the MagWeb.com coalition. Some sign quickly. Some wait and see. Some never sign. I admit we use low pressure sales pitches because we believe the publisher must be completely behind the strength-in-numbers concept of MagWeb.com. And that probably causes time delays. But we started with 8 magazines in July 1996, and we're up to 162 by March 2008...and more are in discussion and negotiation. I'd like to take credit for doing something right to expand MagWeb.com's breadth as well as depth.

What about deceased magazines? Will you post them?

Yes, we'd love to--IF we can find out who owns the rights. Several members joked that we should post the magazines up first and that would guarantee we'd find out who owned the rights. Our lawyer takes a less jovial view of that tactic. Remember, we are a registered NJ corporation subject to the state and federal laws dealing with copyrights, etc.

If you know the publisher of an existing or defunct magazine, please e-mail (support@magweb.com) us an address and phone number--we'll contact him and make a pitch. It's been successful before.

Do you accept original articles?

Yes! We have product review sections as well as "War Lore" (for historical accounts, scenarios, orders of battle, etc) for placing articles members wish to donate to the MagWeb.com archives. Members retain full copyright and may place these articles elsewhere. We cannot at this time pay for any articles, but we can offer you a publishing forum.

What does MagWeb.com run on?

MagWeb.com runs under a UNIX server, which we own. We use Netscape server software for the site, plus a variety of custom UNIX programs to do a variety of other things. We use off-the-shelf programs for the search engine and discussions software. For credit card transactions, we use a secure server with digital certificate encryption. We upgrade as fast as new software versions appear. We believe in keeping the operation secure and separate as much as possible, so we do NOT rent space on a shared system.

We just upgraded our server with a big honkin' Sun box in late 2000, which also took six months to stamp out the bugs and incompatibilties. It's been stable since April 2001. Yes, it was expensive. Yes, it was difficult. Yes, it was frustrating at times. But it allows us room to grow.

Why not rent space? Wouldn't that be cheaper?

In 1996, we looked into it, but none of the local ISPs would allow CGI scripts, which eliminated the possibility of the crucial online credit card ordering system and features like the search engine and discussions. Today, there's plenty companies that will allow this, and it is a possibility we'll look into, but having the "means of production" so to speak at your fingertips allowed us to do things when we wanted to that we could not have done as easily on a remote site--custom programming for the most part, but other aspects too.

What search engine do you use?

Perlfect. It has its quirks like most search engines and you may get a whole bunch of useless links in addition to the one you really want, but it is pretty competent overall. This is the fourth different search engine we've used, so we upgrade as we find better software. I should point out we looked at a dozen different engines for our Sun box before settling on this one.

So it can't all be perfect...What's the downside of MagWeb.com?

No, MagWeb.com is not perfect [grin], but we try.

First, I urge you to take a look at the MagWeb.com Survey. It points out what our members think is the good, bad, and ugly about the service. If you look under what needs improvement, the operative word is "more" -- more back issues, more magazines, more articles, etc. Hey, we're coding as fast as we can.

So, not every back issue from every magazine is available. As mentioned before, it takes time to create and code it all up. We've gotten much, much faster, and there's plenty available now, but there are decades-worth of issues remaining. And as we add new magazines, well, we also add even more back issues.

You know, MagWeb.com receives the nicest compliments from members who do web work. Why? Because they are intimately involved with the amount of effort it takes to scan and pretty up images, code up text, integrate images and hyperlinks, and generally maintain the entire system.

Second, reading a full-size glossy magazine in your favorite armchair is a bit different than reading articles off a computer screen. The print's sharper, the colors are brighter, and the handling is easier. I used to use teletype machines that printed on yellow paper, then used monochrome monitors, and early large dot-pitch color monitors. Technology's come a long way since then, and I expect it to go a longer way. We use what we can for now and plan for the future.

As a corollary, the graphics need to be adapted. We crop photos as needed to speed up transmission, and are forced to do two (sometimes three) sizes for maps--small for speed, large (and jumbo) for detail (albeit a slower download). Teletypes used to go at 110bps, and the accoustic modem I scraped knuckles on (ramming the telephone handset into the cups before I lost the tone) was a blazing 300bps. Then came 1200, and 9600, and 14,400, 19,200, and 28,800, and 56,600...and so on.

Third, and we touched on this earlier, MagWeb.com is not a one-for-one online page turning of the printed version. We use the Web's strength and flexibility to allow you to zero into a specific article in as short a time as possible. For example, we try to link articles in a series across several issues...you know, part one is in issue 13, part 2 in issue 14, etc. So if the search engine puts you in part 3, you can immediately jump to part 1 and the beginning. Things like that.

Fourth, we do NOT include the advertising in any issue, which some folks want to look at. We can understand, and we recommend they buy the print version of the magazine. Our license with the publisher does not cover them, and, we have a Mall at MagWeb.com should an advertiser want to run ads online. Also, it would detract time from posting other issues, and ads from 5 or 10 or 20 or 30 years ago really have no bearing on buying something today.

Fifth, currently published magazines usually lag an issue or two behind publication -- this is in the licensing agreement because we believe that print subscribers should receive their issues first, then newsstand sales go through, and then finally the issue arrives in the MagWeb.com archive.

These are the disadvantages we can think of...

With all those articles and new postings, I don't have time to read them all!

You don't have to. Although you can read every issue we post, cover to cover, most members cherry pick the best articles from each magazine. Some read every day for 15 minutes, others once a week for an hour, and some once every 3 weeks or once per month for 4 hours in a massive info-fest. Some at lunchtime, others early evening, others on the weekend, and some in the wee hours of a sleepless morn.

Since it is super easy to log in and find out the new postings (by magazine in reverse chronological order, as well as by subject topic), it takes no time at all to start using MagWeb.com effectively. And since it is in downloadable electronic format, we can save you hours of retyping text or redrawing images. You don't have to waste time wandering the web--everything you need is at one site, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: MagWeb.com.

That said, you may very well find hours of interesting articles, especially if you become interested in a new period of warfare. MagWeb.com is the first, best place to stock up on information.

Anything else?

I think we covered the basics. There's always more to say, and we're unabashedly enthusiastic about MagWeb.com. I hope we've conveyed that to you and answered most, if not all, of your questions. I guess I'd also like to point out our favorable reviews from around the world, including a "Hot Site" from USA Today, Internet Excellence Award (NJ Technology), eContent, Armchair General, Orlando Sentinel, Newsday, ManeuverKritik (Germany), lots of web sites, and plenty of kind words from MagWeb.com members who also vote with their membership renewals.

Other information you might be interested in:

1998 MagWeb.com Survey (What Members Say)
1999 MagWeb.com Survey (What Members Say)
MagWeb.com Hit Parade (Statistics)

Some Reviews

eContent Magazine Reviews MagWeb.com

Robert McGarvey's article examines subscription-based successes (Penthouse.com and MagWeb.com) and failures (Slate magazine from Microsoft). It's nice to be in such well-known company--especially in the "success" category! An excerpt from his MagWeb.com review:
"Most are obscure titles, at least to the mass market, but to avid followers of military history, this is a trove."

We tried to answer all the questions asked us over the last couple years plus everything we could think of, but we not have answered your particular question. So...

E-mail us: magweb@magweb.com
E-mail us: support@magweb.com

We'll get back to you direct (and try and place your question in our FAQ too). You can also e-mail us to tell us what you think of the MagWeb.com idea. Thanks!

Russ
Russ Lockwood
CEO, Coalitoin Web, Inc.

Magazine articles and contents are copyrighted property of the respective publications. All copyrights, trademarks, and other rights are held by the respective magazines, companies, and/or licensors, with all rights reserved. MagWeb.com, its contents, and all HTML coding are © Copyright 1996-2006 by Coalition Web, Inc. All rights reserved.

Coalition Web, Inc. is a registered NJ state corporation providing MagWeb.com since 1996 (www.MagWeb.com.com).