# Detours Magazine and Kirksville’s Early Student Web Publishing

Detours began as a Truman student travel magazine in 1996 and later expanded into a dedicated website, interactive online editions, social voting and a Web-based publication model.

2026-07-26


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Detours began as a student-produced travel magazine at Truman State University in 1996.

The important digital-history question is not when the magazine began.

It is when its Web presence became a publication in its own right.

The current evidence gives several firm checkpoints, but not one verified website-launch date.

## 1996: the print magazine begins

Truman’s current organization history says Detours was first published in **1996**.

That is the founding year of the magazine.

It should not be used as the launch year for [detoursmagazine.com](http://detoursmagazine.com) unless separate archival evidence proves the website existed then.

## 2006: print still dominated

A March 2006 Truman Today issue describes Detours as a twice-yearly student magazine involving roughly 35 students from several academic areas.

That confirms an active print publication and a substantial student-production operation.

It also shows that digital material was already entering the workflow through photo submissions.

## By 2010: the dedicated website is definitely in use

An October 2010 Truman Today issue directs readers to **[detoursmagazine.com](http://detoursmagazine.com)**.

That gives us a strong public-use checkpoint.

By then, the site was established enough to host information and previous photo-contest winners.

The evidence supports:

**Detours had a dedicated public website by 2010.**

It does not support:

**Detours launched its website in 2010.**

The site may have existed earlier.

## Social interaction became part of publishing

By 2011–2012, Truman Today references show Detours using its website together with Facebook for photo-contest participation and voting.

That is a meaningful change from one-way print publishing.

Readers were not simply receiving a finished magazine.

They were participating in the publication process.

## 2015: print and digital clearly separate

A January 2015 Truman Today article says the latest Detours issue was available online and included:

- an interactive flipbook;
- a tablet edition;
- video;
- picture slideshows.

The same report says the final print issue would be released that April.

That gives us a clear transition point.

The online edition was no longer merely a mirror of a printed magazine.

It had features print could not provide.

## Later Detours became Web-based

A later Truman Media Network guide describes Detours as a Web-based service publishing online magazine issues and more frequent website updates.

That shows the digital edition eventually became the publication’s primary delivery model.

## What remains unresolved?

The current source set does not establish:

- exact launch date of [detoursmagazine.com](http://detoursmagazine.com);
- first article published online;
- first archived homepage;
- whether an earlier Truman-hosted Detours site preceded the dedicated domain.

Those questions require archive reconstruction.

## The useful chronology

The source-supported sequence is:

**1996 — print publication begins**

**2006 — active student print magazine with digital submissions**

**2010 — dedicated website definitely in public use**

**2011–12 — site and social media support interactive contests**

**2015 — interactive online edition and final print issue**

**later — Web-based publication model**

That is enough to show a genuine digital transition without pretending the first surviving URL is the exact birth of the site.

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Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/detours-magazine-kirksville-early-student-web-publishing/

Language: en-us

Content type: article

Published: 2026-07-27T04:03:56+00:00

Description: How Truman’s Detours Magazine moved from print into online publishing without confusing the magazine’s 1996 founding with the launch date of its website.