Tips for Transitioning Your Content to Digital

To Zoom or not to Zoom, that was the question that came up in our editorial meeting at the beginning of April when it became clear that COVID was going to cancel our literary journal’s annual issue launch party. We wanted to celebrate our authors (and our hard work!), but we weren’t sure if we wanted to do a reading online.

The trick to transitioning events into COVID world is not copy/paste your format online. Some are complaining that Zoom events cannot compare with live theater, or a festival, or a reading…and it is true that you can’t truly replicate the experience and intimacy of an in-person event on a computer screen. The most important thing to remember is you’re not trying to recreate a live event; you’re trying to create a digital one.

Exposition Review is no stranger to transitioning to digital during difficult circumstances. When USC transferred the Masters of Professional Writing program out of state, the journal-then called Southern California Review-was in danger of closing. Rebranding itself as Exposition Review, the editorial board decided to continue the journal without the university…or its budget that allowed for printing and other resources. The journal had no other option than to go online.

At first, it felt like a step back that made us less legitimate, but we quickly found that going online…