By Waylon Lewis

on Mar 16, 2009

Yogadork, new fave site, asks: “Are all Yoga Magazines doomed to extinction?” Even big, popular Yoga Journal?

“elephant journal evades the reaper” by going online? Boooooyahhh, we’re goin’ New Media in da shizzle! Of course, I’ve had to compose a real-life country song…”Oooh I’ve lost my offices, lost my staff, put my house on the market (though I may just start a Green club, instead), I’ve given up my car (biking’s cheaper, more fun anyway), I’ve even closed my personal bank account, ’cause it kept bouncing.” But as long as I can sell books at the Trident and pay for (organic) dog food, I’m good, our web site’s growing fast (68K unique visitors & counting) and our talk show (with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, hopefully Congressman Jared Polis or Senator Mark Udall, ecofashion show & Paper Bird) is coming back to the Boulder Theater May 6!

Yoga Dork excerpt:

Are All Yoga Mags Approaching Extinction?Last week we mentioned the news of ascent‘s descent into the print media graveyard at the end of this month, not a huge shocker in today’s newspaper and print death march – obviously it’s not just yoga mags going the way of the dodo bird. The Drishti Blogpointed out that those who still enjoy their yoga articles in tangible format will be hard pressed to find old faves, like Yogi Times and Namarupa, on shelves these days. Meanwhile pubs like Elephant Journal have evaded the reaper by making the necessary-for-survival cost-saving shift to online.  Those that are still standing are few:  Yoga Journal, which had its own slimming down (even online, which we didn’t quite understand); LA Yoga; Fit Yoga; and new quarterly YogaMom (having it’s untimely launch last year)…

…click here for the rest, which is well worth it.

Seriously, we’ve writ on this old media forest fire or sudden chasm in the centuries-long journalist tradition. Who will sink, who will swim? Who cares. What I care about is a bit more basic: will journalistic integrity, investigative journalism, foreign bureaus and original research survive? Or will we all just echo chamber each other in the blogosphere, copying and pasting without attribution (which happened to us yesterday) like a bunch of twitter-happy lemmings? Who will hold Washington DC’s feet to the fire? Who will call it like they sees it, if we’re all just gawkering after traffic?

Founder of elephant magazine (founded: 2002, went national as indie magazine, & successfully transitioned online in 2009 [because mainstream magazine distribution is wildly inefficient from an eco-responsible point of view]) is dedicated to "bringing together those working (and playing) to create enlightened society." It's about anything that helps us to live a good life that's also good for others, and our planet. elephantjournal.com (named Top 10 in the US by over 40 sites) and host of "Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis," a national “top ten ‘green’ video blog," Waylon was born in Boulder, Colorado, raised at a Buddhist meditation retreat in Vermont, graduated from Boston University’s top-ranked magazine journalism school; and is a top columnist for Huffington Post, daily bike commuter, workaholic, mediocre climber & best friend of Redford (a rescue hound). His goals in life: to take a long bath tonight with Dwell, The Sunday NY Times, The New Yorker & a glass of Talisker with one ice cube; publish a best-selling novel (and get filthy rich); have 12 red-headed chil'n (and only one wife); run for President (and lose) & have fun all along the way. ~~~ founder: elephantjournal.com | host: Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis. Ft. on 20 sites, incl. Huffington Post. ~ 200,000 unique visitors/month: Google Analytics. ~ Treehugger: Reader's Choice "Eco Ambassador in Culture & Celebrity" + 2010 "Changemaker" ~ Discovery Network's Planet Green: "Green Hero" ~ Shambhala Sun: "Prominent Buddhist" ~ Naturally Boulder: "'07 Entrepreneur of Year" ~ 5280 Magazine: "Top Single '09" ~ MNN: Top 10 US Green Video Blog ~ Beliefnet: Top 10 Buddhist Blog ~ Shorty Awards: #1 Green Twitter in US ~~~ To connect: "elephantjournal on Facebook" "Waylon Lewis on Facebook" & "Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis" on Facebook On twitter: twitter.com/waylonlewis and our award-winning twitter account, named #1 nationally in green: twitter.com/elephantjournal