Robert Edward Zucker and Southwest Alternatives Institute, Inc.

Robert Edward Zucker launched several print newspaper titles in Tucson, Arizona from 1978 through 1994, including Youth Alternatives (1978), Youth Awareness Press (1978-1980), Tucson Teen (1981-1990), The Magazine (1982-1985), and the Entertainment Magazine (1985-1994). In 1995, he pioneered the Internet with the Entertainment Magazine On Line web site at EMOL.org.

The Youth Alternatives and Youth Awareness Press titles were published when Robert was employed by the Tucson YWCA. Tucson Teen, Magazine, and Entertainment Magazine titles were published through Southwest Alternatives Institute, Inc. (SAI), a non-profit 501 3c established in 1977.

Robert was hired by the University of Arizona Department of Journalism from 1992-2005 to teach courses in desktop and Internet publishing and maintain the department’s computer labs. He created the departments’ first internet web site in 1995 (journalism.arizona.edu) while he also hosted his own web site at EMOL (Entertainment Magazine On Line). In 1998, he was hired by Pima Community College to maintain the journalism department’s computer lab. He later became advisor to the Aztec Press campus newspaper and adjunct instructor while still teaching courses at the UA. He developed the web site for the Aztec Press newspaper and established an Internet Publishing Lab and new Internet course curriculum for Pima College’s Journalism Department.

After retirement from teaching in 2005, he continued to maintain EMOL.org and associated web sites. Through his company, BZB Publishing, he self-published several books in 2014 including, Treasures of the Santa Catalina Mountains and Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades, a 4-volume compilation of articles, photographs and interviews published from all of the newspaper titles. Over the decades, he also published several other books.

Robert also hosted the annual “Buffalo Bill Cody Days in Oracle, Arizona” from 2016 through 2020. Robert was named as a 2020 inductee to the Tucson Musicians Museum for his promotion of local music over the past decades.

Print copies of all newspaper editions are stored at the University of Arizona Library Special Collections (HQ799.73.T9) and digitally on the Arizona Memory Project website. Digital copies of the web sites are archived on the WayBack Machine, and supporting documents are stored at archive.org/web/*/emol.org

Major Books:
"Treasures of the Santa Catalina Mountains                                        UA Library Special Collections: F817.S28 Z83 2014
"Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades” Volumes 1-4                    UA Library Special Collections: F819.T953 ES 2014
"Kabbalah’s Secret Circles", 2017                                                            978-1-939050-14-1
"Twilight of Consciousness", 2019                                                          978-1-939050-20-5
"Traveling Show", 2013                                                                             978-1-939050-03-0
"Print to Pixels”                                                                                           978-1-939050-02-1