Newsman: The latest publishing craze which has taken off all over the world, is the publication of what have come to be known as 'zines, short, of course, for 'magazines'. However, unlike magazines, whose fortunes ebband flow, these thinner and less glossy 'zines can be desk-top published at a greatly reduced cost. Of course, 'zinesare also available to be read on-line, that is, on the Internet. 'Zines are rather like comics, except that they alsocontain intelligent and often controversial articles on topics that interest today's highly educated youth. I spokeearlier today to Jean Cramp, the publisher of yet another desk-top magazine clone called 'Fill Me In'. Jean, canyou tell us why you called your 'zine 'Fill Me In'?
Jean: Well, it's a joke really. You know, most newspapers and magazines don't tell the whole story, orat any rate, they don't talk about issues that me and my friends want to know about. So that's why we started this'zine, you see - to 'fill the reader in' on the real news.
Newsman: So how well is your 'zine selling?
Jean: Oh, great - in fact it's only the fourth week of publication of the first issue and we've had to reprintanother 2000. We've sold about 2300. Mostly in alternative bookshops that cater for people who are er ... different.
Newsman: How, in fact, do you publish them?
Jean: On a computer - all the graphic work and, of course, the word-processing, too. It's pretty simpleand there's only three of us in the publishing team. We work from our office which is actually in the front roomat home - we were all students together at Design College you see. We've quit now to spend more time on it.
Newsman: Why do think your 'zine is such a success?
Jean: We tell it like it is, you know, we don't leave out any facts and we don't tell lies like the other media.
Newsman: Well, thank you, er ... , and, well, I wish you all the best of luck with your ... er ... 'zine, Jean.
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