It’s possible that many of you don’t even remember what 116 is. Of late, the Spectator’s photography and literature magazine has failed to come out on a regular basis—technically, it’s supposed to be semi-annual. For this reason, it may seem to those of you who used to enjoy leafing through 116 or who submitted your work in the past that the magazine has slipped through the cracks, and become less of a priority. Some may even feel that 116’s move to online, at least for the time being, only confirms your suspicions. Those who do care enough to think this through, though, will be happy to learn that this is not the case at all.

Because of various logistical constraints, 116 came very close to not being released at all this semester, which might have meant a grim future for the publication—it didn’t come out last semester either. By bringing 116 into the realm of the internet, though, we are actually giving the magazine a chance not only to survive, but to be even better than it was in print.

Despite our obvious love for print media—we do work on the Spectator, after all—online makes a lot of sense for a publication like 116. Without page constraints, we can showcase more and, in the case of literature, longer work. Instead of only printing one or two photographs in color, we can display all of the submissions as they were intended to be seen. Without the limitations of print, our talented writers and photographers can play a much more active role in the end product than they could in the past.

Hopefully, in the future, there will be no doubt during any given semester as to whether or not 116 will come out. As this issue proves, regardless of the format, 116 is going to be totally awesome as long as there are creative, invested writers and photographers to contribute their work. On that note, we hope that you enjoy our efforts—and your efforts—in the form of the first online edition of 116.

A special thanks goes to Lara, Spectator’s Online Editor, for without her endless hard work and amazing ability to create a product that turned out way better than our original ideas were, this would never have been possible.