There are people who will call me crazy for launching an online magazine. Believe me, I’ve heard it all before. Creating a high-quality digital publication is incredibly hard and won’t make money. Terrible ads and challenging ad revenue due to ad blockers and other pressures are ruining online journalism. Subscriptions are a non-starter, nobody pays for content. Blah blah blah.

I’ve been writing for the web for over twenty years. That’s no joke. I was blogging long before anyone had come up with the term. And, depsite all the challenges and difficulties that the web has seen along its remarkable growth from infancy to maturity, it is still the most incredible medium for publishing and reading the written word ever in human history. I fully believe in an open web, free of overbearing government oversight, censorship, or single corporate control. And I believe in the power of independent journalism to be a force for good in the world. Even with the scourge of fake news and sensational, clickbait-y material getting rewarded by social media, I still love the internet’s capability to allow anyone, at any time, to put forth something noteworthy and intriguing.

But why Trellis Magazine? Why not just write an ordinary blog and call it a day? I outlined my motivation for starting a magazine in my first Edgewise column. Suffice it to say, after so many years of blogging (and achieveing some success at it), it was time to try something a little more ambitious as well as collaborative. I’m a huge fan of curated collections of content from multiple contributors, and I also really enjoy the periodical format. In this day and age of “instant news” and multiple daily updates, I believe there’s still a place for quieter, longform writing. My inspiration has come from classic publications such as The Atlantic, as well as smaller indie experiments with the magazine format online. In addition, my iPad Pro occupies a huge place in my heart, and I wish more websites would cater to the incredible form factor of this remarkable handheld tablet and offer a crafted, print-like reading experience.

Enough of my blabbing. Our first issue is ready to go, so why don’t you give it a read and let me know what YOU think. We are always on the lookout for great article submissions and important feedback on our coverage. Or if you just want to say Hi, we like that too. Hi right back atcha.

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Jared White is Editor-in-Chief of Trellis Magazine. He is a web designer by trade and has written for many tech journals and blogs. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two children. Follow on Twitter