Leland Meitzler, editor of popular genealogy magazine Everton's Genealogical Helper, wrote this week to let me know that it is debuting a new Online Edition this July - hosted by FamilyLink.com. This new digital edition will be available for free to subscribers of the traditional print magazine, and will also be available as a separate, online-only subscription at a reduced subscription rate of $12.00 per year for the monthly magazine (the print version has a current subscription rate of $27.00 per year). The rate for the online-only version is discounted still further -- to $10.00 -- for subscriptions made before July 1.

The new Online Edition of Genealogical Helper will be available in PDF format which is fully-searchable. Hopefully, there will be no restrictions on downloading/saving these PDF files to your computer, as it's always nice to be able to go back articles you read months and even years ago

I currently subscribe to the Digital Genealogist, solely available in a digital version, and find myself torn when it comes to whether I prefer print or digital editions. When looking at the many filing cabinets in my house stuffed full with years worth of back issues of various genealogical publications, I find that one of the biggest benefits of the digital editions - at least for me - is the ability to save them for future reference without taking up so much valuable storage space. Yet, I also find myself putting off reading the digital editions, while the pretty, glossy magazines with the big headlines tend to suck me in on the way back from my mailbox. I'm thinking that the new Everton's Online Edition may offer the best of both options - I can still do my initial reading in the traditional print version and then save the digital version for any future reference, while donating my print copies to my local library or retirement home (or even the dentist's office - can't get too many people involved in genealogy!). Of course, this assumes that the new magazine will be downloadable which, according to Leland, it will! Additional benefits of a digital edition include hyperlinks from the Surname index directly to the relevant pages in each edition, as well as hyperlinks for all Web URLs.

Do you have a preference for traditional print magazines or digital editions? Please share your thoughts!