…Or, the BEST BLOG EVAH! This made my day. But then I think the “smart” folks out there knew this kind of thing was going to happen ages ago. Next to go is print-on-demand; that’ll take time, and LSI will be like rare relic baseball cards in the age of the MLB steroid scandal — a specialty market. And a collector’s pastime. It’s more like the music industry. Props go out to The Magazine Death Pool. Credit given where credit is deserved. Also, to the following comments below.
STARLOG MAGAZINE – R.I.P.
The Magazine Death Pool:
Science Fiction Linkage:
http://www.magazinedeathpool.com/magazine_death_pool/2009/04/starlog-rip-april-2009.html#comments
Paul Riddell wrote: “I agree that the Internet is one of the reasons why “Starlog”, “Cinefantastique”, “Sci-Fi Universe”, and a plethora of other magazines went under, as their core audiences are generally so cheap that they use both sides of the toilet paper. That cheapness, though, is the real reason. Advertisers weren’t interested in buying ad space because the only response would be from “reviewers” who wanted freebies and from pocket psychotics who wanted to bitch about how they weren’t being hired for their obsessive knowledge of “Star Trek” trivia. On the newsstands, the copies would either be read and then discarded or shoplifted. Oh, and just try to get the cheap bastards to buy a subscription, even if the publisher got the subscriber copies out before the newsstand copies appeared, instead of three weeks to a month later. The only thing more pathetic than the science fiction media magazine market is the science fiction short story magazine market, which is why the few literary science fiction magazines left will probably be making the deadpool within the next year. I have money down on “The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction” being the first casualty of the season.”
Shoplifting is a little pushing it. To be honest, with advertising aside, my money was on F&SF until about 2011-2012 tops. I guess time will tell; after all, there are only so many infusions and bailouts. Many old-school writers and editors who work these publishing ends will most likely be shoveling snow to pay their mortgages and make ends meet. The Age of Freelancing is here, people, hold on. We are now our own bosses and our own vacuum cleaner salesmen forever! Obscurity is going to take on a whole new meaning. In ten years time, Borders and Waldenbooks will not exist. Hold on to your royalty checks. Content-wise, things are about to get bumpier!
Edited to Add: Be sure to also check out the Sept. 08, 2008 entry.
Lawrence Dagstine: Author 