Eureka Street joins other online publications in beginning the new year with a fresh roll of the dice.
We are adopting what is known in the business as a 'rolling' format. That means we are publishing two articles each weekday instead of around 16 every second Thursday.
The other change is that all the articles are unlocked. Paid subscriptions are being phased out. We trust you will continue to support Eureka Street fundraising activities and events, as well as our advertisers.
We will continue to produce a fortnightly PDF edition, for libraries and those who like to print the fortnight's articles and recreate the 'magazine' experience.
A daily email newsletter will alert you to what we have published. We hope you will accept this, as this is the best way for us to alert you to our articles that interpret current news events while the events are still news. However we will send an alternative weekly email newsletter to those who do not want a daily email.
We are not alone in moving to a free access and rolling format. Online publications big and small have been doing so in recent months. Last week, Rupert Murdoch dumped the Wall Street Journal's paid access model. Also last week, New Matilda relaunched its website and confirmed its decision to go free and daily.
New Matilda is a sister publication of Eureka Street, in that it is small, Australian, and occupies a niche that intersects with our own. Another sister publication was launched last Friday. It is Thinking Faith, the online journal of the British Jesuits.
The appearance of Thinking Faith at this stage illustrates how members of the community of small publications work together and learn from each other's experiences. Thinking Faith launched nearly two years after Eureka Street online, and it knows to move immediately to free access and daily publication.
While the British Jesuits are new to online publication, they preceded us with their print incarnation, which lasted from 1864 until 2001, and appeared under the banner of The Month. The print version of Eureka Street (1991-2006) no doubt learned from the experience of The Month.
Michael Mullins is editor of Eureka Street.