I had a long, extensive post that was eaten by the internet when I clicked submit, so you get the extremely abridged version instead.
My college fraternity had two publications, both significantly better than the Texas Mason mail out we receive. One was electronic, the other was paper, then it switched over to electronic. Basically, once they switched to electronic, 90% of the fraternity never read them, if not an even higher percentage. Why? I don't know. Seems like it would be more convenient, at least in some ways. But in fact, some of the members of my chapter had never heard of the electronic only publication, much less did they bother to check the releases of the fraternity's main publication once it went online. Instead of becoming more convenient, it just slipped into the shadows.
Furthermore, the very first electronic issue of the former hard copy mailout was late. Without a 'must mail by' deadline, the editors got lazy, because they could post the pdf to the website whenever they darn well pleased. Having been in one fraternity with e-newsletters, that fraternity being MUCH more wired/tech savvy than Masonry, I have to say, my expectations would be pretty low for any e newsletter. And they're pretty low with the mail out as is.
I am a member of the Percussive Arts Society (professional organization for percussionists, as I'm a percussion instructor) and they have an e membership option and a hard copy membership option, whenever you pay your dues. I always choose the hard copy for personal preference. My magazines don't need batteries, don't have cables, don't require an internet connection, can't be corrupted on a hard drive, etc, and I simply prefer hard copies. I pay extra for that option, but for me personally, its absolutely worth it. If we switched to an electronic newsletter, I would hope there would be an option like that left to us.
That said, frankly, I wouldn't pay for hard copies, as much as I prefer them, with the Texas Mason, unless it was very cheap. The publication lacks anything substantial that can't be covered/isn't already covered by the monthly maintenance emails. What's the point? If they switched it to electronic format, I would probably just forgo it entirely in favor of the monthly emails, which are more concise anyway.
My complaint is mainly lack of substantive content. It's a pretty pointless publication right now.
---
EDIT:
To be fair, I checked my old frats website, and they seem to have gotten their act together regarding the publication. I just remember the 'discussion' at our national convention. Basically the ones who wanted to go electronic (also to balance the budget) outnumbered the rest of us, and refused to hear any of our requests. It quickly became a steamroll of condescension. It's easier to cut any option of hard copy publication than to independently audit your budget, etc.
I guess all this is to say, I think we need to find a happy medium, or some sort of compromise in the e/hard copy issue.
And all of it will be for naught anyway if we don't elevate the quality of the publication itself.
