Meanjin mustn't fade from the page

THE novelist Frank Moorhouse is credited with the witticism that Australia's second-oldest literary magazine, Meanjin, takes its name from an Aboriginal word meaning ''rejected by The New Yorker''. In fact, Meanjin is an indigenous word describing the spike of land on which central Brisbane sits, and from where the magazine was first published almost 70 years ago.

It is perhaps ominously prescient that the quarterly journal's blog site is called Spike. In journalism, the spike refers to the once actual, now mostly metaphoric, destination for rejected articles - and, earlier this week, it seemed possible that the printed version of Meanjin was heading for similar impalement. As The Age reported yesterday, the magazine's eighth editor in its history, Sophie Cunningham, is resigning. The official reason is to return to full-time writing, but the alleged motivation has more to do with Cunningham's concerns that the magazine might go exclusively online - a view reportedly put to her earlier this year by Alan Kohler, chairman of Melbourne University Publishing, which controversially took over Meanjin's administration and distribution in early 2008.

In a letter published in The Age today, Mr Kohler says Meanjin will continue to appear both online and in print. While such clarification is welcome, there is still cause for unease in that the idea could well have occurred in the first place, and that it might have been given serious consideration to the point where an editor has resigned. For example, there is clear discrepancy between the remarks made by MUP's chief executive, Louise Adler, in 2008 - ''While MUP still produces books there will be a print edition of Meanjin'' - and on Wednesday, when she reiterated her commitment, but added, ''The ratio of what you print and what you publish online is a question that is changing for all of us.''

Whatever the questions, whatever the answers, it is hoped that ratio is respected, and that Meanjin will continue in print as well as online. In the world of contemporary publishing, each form complements the other, and it would be impossible to imagine any publication existing without its internet equivalent. Meanjin, published under the aegis of one of this city's most renowned institutions of learning, might not have a mass circulation, but it remains one of this country's foremost journals of culture, politics and ideas. As such, it is the University of Melbourne's responsibility to ensure Meanjin survives. On and off the page.