Something to KRO about

By Amy Blumenthal

The Kenyon Review is not immune to either the rising cost of print or the limits on distribution of its print journal. Looking for ways to expand the magazine's audience and bring more top fiction and poetry to their readers, editor David Lynn '76 and his staff decided to explore the power of the electron. Out of their planning has come a new online journal, Kenyon Review Online (KRO), found at www.kenyonreview.org along with a lively and well-read blog on literary matters.

"For the first time a couple of years ago, I was having to turn down first-rate literary work because we just didn't have the space in KR," said Lynn. "As we began to develop the idea for KRO, it seemed an opportunity not simply to reproduce the print journal, but to do something different."

KRO forms a complement to the print journal, not a substitute. Pieces selected for publication in either venue are submitted to the same high editorial standards. But the missions of the print and online journals differ slightly. "Where KR strives to be timeless in what it publishes," says Lynn, "KRO is meant to be a little more timely, a little more experimental, a little more challenging."

Some writing styles and literary forms are better suited to one medium or the other, notes English professor Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, who was brought on board as associate editor in 2007 to help launch the new online magazine. Lengthy paragraphs, intricate sentence structure, and longer pieces overall are usually better served by print. The design of an online page and the habits of online readers favor brevity, such as lyric poems and shorter fiction. But there's no difference in quality. "We look for surprise and mastery in every piece of writing we accept," he says.

KR staffers have been compelled to become online readers themselves. The Review accepts submissions only online these days, not on paper. With the volume of submissions higher than ever—more than 6,000 pieces of writing were received in the four-month reading period from September 15, 2008 to January 15, 2009—they have become experienced very quickly in the challenges, benefits, and practices of on-screen reading.

Since all submissions go into the same electronic pool, the editorial process remains unchanged, says Lynn. Writers submit their work to a single address, not to one or the other journal. In making their selections, the editors choose whether something is right for print or KRO—or both. Just about every recent issue of the print magazine has included at least one piece cross-published on KRO. "KRO allows me to take more risks, to say yes to more things that are worth putting out there," said Lynn.

Benefits accrue to writers and readers as well as to the Review. KRO is reaching a younger audience, including the growing number of graduate and creative-writing students whose budgets may prevent them from subscribing to print but who form a natural audience for the magazine. International readership has also broadened, another long-term challenge as the journal looks to the future. In March 2009 the KR Web site received about 24,000 unique visitors. KRO content changes every two weeks, alternating poetry and fiction, so readers get more literature more frequently, and for free.

If print is permanent, digital is immediate. And both offer advantages to writers. The two journals together offer writers more opportunities to publish under the KR imprimatur. Where the print journal alone had room to print only about 3 percent of submissions, with KRO the overall acceptance rate is edging up to 7 percent. Online publications appear more quickly, too. Work accepted to KRO gets published in a matter of months; there's a two-year lag for print publication.

Will online edge out print in the future? "I used to swear that there'd be a print KR as long as I was editor, but I don't any longer," says Lynn. "I'm pretty confident that we'll still have a print version for the next five years. But anyone in publishing who dares make predictions for more than five years out is a fool or a liar."

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