"I don’t have answers, just a feeling that the journal-as-proving-ground model has gotten creaky, at least when it comes to attracting readers. Maybe it still works for the writers and the agents and the publishers. I’d like to know where the readers are in this equation."

Jennifer Howard, reacting to reacting to news that journal TriQuarterly is going online-only. This trend will probably only continue. As Howard notes, not many of these journals were read much in their heyday, and with new media competing for audiences’ attention it’s likely they’ll be read even less in the future.

TriQuarterly is currently running on a Blogger site; hopefully that will change soon. It will be interesting to see if these publications will be able to survive and thrive online. As writers realize publishers are becoming less necessary, perhaps we’ll see online journals act as gatekeepers to author-hosted short stories, with original criticism mixed in. Time will tell. (via The Millions)