University of Mississippi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CHAPTER III: Epic Advances 

The final decade of the twentieth century began another era of progress for children’s 

magazines in America and the first tangible evidence of the Digital Revolution. Epic advances in 

computer and communications technology “suggested that newly efficient ways of distributing 

greater quantities of needed information to readers would be both possible and profitable.” 

Reading David Abrahamson’s descriptions of the Digital Revolution written in 1996 from a 

vantage point of a mere 15 years, his words are not unlike those that an explorer might use to 

describe a new land. 

By the decade’s midpoint, it was evident that innovations in "new media" areas would be 

led by magazine firms. With their expertise at editing for and marketing to specific 

audiences, they were uniquely positioned to explore the potential of what has been 

termed electronic publishing. It was still mostly a matter of investigating possibilities, for 

it was not yet certain which technology—CD-ROM, interactive disc, proprietary online 

database, World Wide Web site on the Internet, or some as-yet-uninvented delivery 

system—would prove the most commercially attractive. 

 

Though the commitment by magazine publishers large and small to the promise of new 

media was amply illustrated in the 1990s, much uncertainty still characterized the field.

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