Marisa Bowe, editor of a new publication called Word, is the first to admit it isn't for everyone. "We don't have any movie or CD reviews," she says. "No celebrities. No Cindy Crawford. None of the usual product-pushing, hypey stuff." Nor is Word bothered--as its writers pursue such burning questions as "Do rock-'n'-roll musicians ever actually experience sexual rejection?"--by the usual constraints of paper, printing or distribution costs. Word goes straight from editor to reader without sacrificing any trees.
Word is a "webzine," one of dozens of bright new publications that have blossomed in the past year on the World Wide...