In the lead-up to the re-launch of Radar magazine last year, editor-in-chief Maer Roshan emphasized that the magazine's website was going to be a major part of the endeavor. Even before the print version's launch, Radar's site began to produce daily gossip stories and features online, and (though it had no shortage of buzz), was able to showcase the kind of content that would define Radar's voice.

Remy Stern, who edited the website, says that the demographic Radar was targeting — smart, cosmopolitan men and women in their 20s and 30s — demanded a sophisticated web product to accompany the magazine.

"We started conceiving the site from the beginning," says Stern, who is currently working on several new web-related projects. "Since the magazine was bi-monthly, we used the site to break news and publish stories that wouldn’t hold until the print issue hit newsstands. It was also an important way to generate buzz and keep the brand on the minds of readers. From a business standpoint, it was a success, too. It was a great vehicle to generate new subscribers and despite limited online ad sales support early on, we'd started to pick up steam and had just signed a few pretty significant ad deals."

In the past, magazines' websites were their print versions' ugly stepsisters, awkward appendages whose purpose was little more than as a teaser. While many hard news outlets took to the web from the start and sped up the news cycle by posting stories online, glossies rarely provided online-only content or made very much of their web presence, preferring to focus on the traditional print version. No more. Today, publishers recognize the necessity of the web and stake an online presence right away, often even months before launching in print.

Certainly there are numerous advantages for magazines to produce and promote an online product first. Launching costs can drop dramatically when there's no print run, a smaller production staff and shorter production period. An online version of a magazine doesn't require a publisher to line up a printer and buy ink. There is no distribution, no postage, and no haranguing for shelf space. Online launches also allow a magazine to test concepts and gather marketing data. Content linked to blogs and elsewhere generates free buzz and builds an audience.

Even established magazines are finding they need to expand their web presence, both to extend their brand and generate additional advertising revenue. Condé Nast's Vanity Fair has recently expanded its website, and New York magazine spent a good deal of time and effort recently to revamp its online presence, adding new content and listings, improved search capabilities and better navigation.

"My goal is for nymag.com to have a strong relationship to the printed magazine, but it will not be identical," said New York magazine editor-in-chief Adam Moss of the site's relaunch last month. "The website will introduce and drive new readers to the printed magazine and act as a supplement to current subscribers, but it will also attract a large and growing audience of its own. As we introduce new features over the next few months, nymag.com will become a site that people visit daily."

At Rolling Stone, managing editor Will Dana is also putting more resources into the magazine's website. "We are really going to focus on making a lot of big and small improvements into Rolling Stone's website — both in terms of content and functionality. And we are also going to do a lot more to integrate the print and electronic versions of the mgazine. For a long time, the website and the magazine operated as two separate entities. That's the main thing we are looking to change — I want both to function as extensions of each other."

Magazine executives are following advertising dollars to the Internet. The Interactive Advertising Bureau estimated online ad revenues in 2005 to be $12.5 billion — 30 percent higher than in 2004. Christian Anthony, a founder of the interactive advertising agency Special Ops Media, says increasingly sophisticated metrics make a more convincing case for advertisers to boost their online spending. "The Internet is not even seen as non-traditional media. The web used to be treated as this new medium, which required a new strategy and new ways of thinking, and sure, there are some strategies that are possible only because of what the Internet offers. But what we're seeing now is that most clients are now looking at web advertising as just another of the necessary forms of media. If you're looking to launch a message to communicate a brand or a product, you need to find your target audience and get in front of as many of the right people as you can. The thing that online always offered was quantification, but now we're better able to target messages to the people we want to reach."

In the end, publishers have realized that they ignore the web at their peril, says Radar veteran Stern. "I think most people in the magazine business have finally realized — particularly in the last year or so — that the industry is in decline and that this isn't just a temporary downturn, but reflects the changing media landscape" Print is going to be less and less important over the coming years. Magazines aren't going to disappear entirely, of course, but if publishers want to stave off this slow erosion — and if they're going to grow over the next few years — the only hope is to conceive of these magazines as brands that can be extended across multiple platforms: the web, TV, broadband, wireless, etc.," he says. "That's why Seventeen now has a TV show. That's why Jane just launched a blog. That's why Time Inc. is launching sites like officepirates.com instead of launching new magazines. And it's why every editor-in-chief in town seems to be talking to their staffs about the importance of the web and is looking to hire web-savvy editors."

David S. Hirschman edits mediabistro.com's daily Media Newsfeed.