The final issue of the Lifeline Anxiety Disorder Newsletter was published in December 2013.
Publication began in March of 1994 at a time when there was little media profile on anxiety disorders and no internet to speak of. Today, things are vastly different.
We began as strictly a print publication which was mailed to subscribers and, also, had a number of outlets in clinic waiting-rooms. Later we joined what was then touted as the 'information highway' and became Canada's first anxiety disorder website and one of less than half a dozen worldwide. We offered subscribers a digital version of the printed publication and provided a webpage version, along with access to previous issues, book reviews, etc. When blogs came on the scene, the Lifeline ADN Blog was added to the website. As mobile devices became widespread, we became mobile device-friendly. The website included a message board which was very popular for several years until social media came along and rather eclipsed message boards. Yes, we were in the forefront of all the innovations for most of our twenty years, but now it is time to move on. There are many social media sites that are very helpful and I really don't have the time to compete with them for 'friends' and 'followers'.
Things have changed. Lots of information on anxiety disorders is available today. Admittedly, some of it isn't very useful or exactly correct, but there's lots more clinical material, too, so that the printed version the Lifeline ADN no longer really has a reason for being. It has, for some time, become progressively lost in the crowd in terms of its internet arm. This has nothing to do with the standard of information on the website but, because it's an old site, which - back in the days when domain registration was expensive - was set up as a mini-site on its sponsor's domain. The search engine algorithms, today, give precedence to the root pages of domains and it is just too time-consuming to do all that is required to duplicate and jump link the many webpages that have been created over the years to a newly registered domain name.
The newsletter format of the Lifeline ADN, then, seems to be somewhat redundant now so, while the website will remain intact (on it's sponsor's domain) and the blog updated whenever there is relevant news to add, there will no longer be a newsletter. Items of interest on will continue to be tweeted (twitter.com/gladsgirl) and the Facebook page will remain up for the time being.
Thank you to all our longtime readers for your loyalty.
Jean Jardine Miller, Editor and Publisher.