Omni (magazine)

Last updated

Omni
Omni magazine October 1984.png
Cover of the October 1984 edition.
Categories Science and Science fiction magazine
Founder
First issueOctober 1978;45 years ago (1978-10)
Final issue1997
Company General Media, Inc.
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City
LanguageEnglish
Website omnimagazine.com
ISSN 0149-8711

Omni was a science and science fiction magazine published for domestic American and UK markets. It contained articles on science, parapsychology, and short works of science fiction and fantasy. [1] It was published as a print version between October 1978 and 1995. The first Omni e-magazine was published on CompuServe in 1986 and the magazine switched to a purely online presence in 1996. [2] [3] It ceased publication abruptly in late 1997, following the death of co-founder Kathy Keeton; activity on the magazine's website ended the following April. [4] [5]

Contents

History

Concept

Omni was founded by Kathy Keeton and her long-time collaborator and future husband Bob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse magazine. [6] The initial concept came from Keeton, who wanted a magazine "that explored all realms of science and the paranormal, that delved into all corners of the unknown and projected some of those discoveries into fiction". [7]

Dick Teresi, an author and former Good Housekeeping editor, wrote the proposal for the magazine, from which a dummy was produced. [6] [8] In pre-launch publicity it was referred to as Nova but the name was changed before the first issue went to print to avoid a conflict with the PBS science show of the same name. [1] [9] [10] Guccione described the magazine as "an original if not controversial mixture of science fact, fiction, fantasy and the paranormal". [11] The debut edition had an exclusive interview with Freeman Dyson, a renowned physicist, and the second edition carried an interview with Alvin Toffler, futurist and author of Future Shock .

Fiction

In its early run, Omni published a number of stories that have become genre classics, such as Orson Scott Card's "Unaccompanied Sonata", William Gibson's "Burning Chrome", "New Rose Hotel" and "Johnny Mnemonic", and George R. R. Martin's "Sandkings". The magazine also published original science fiction and fantasy by William S. Burroughs, Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Carroll, Julio Cortázar, T. Coraghessan Boyle, and other mainstream writers. The magazine excerpted Stephen King's novel Firestarter , and featured his short story "The End of the Whole Mess". Omni also brought the works of numerous painters to the attention of a large audience, such as H. R. Giger, De Es Schwertberger and Rallé. In the early 1980s, popular fiction stories from Omni were reprinted in The Best of Omni Science Fiction series and featured art by space artists like Robert McCall. A fictional cover of the magazine appears in the 1984 "Ghostbusters" movie, featuring a photo of the proton pack on the cover.

Market

Omni entered the market at the start of a wave of new science magazines aimed at educated but otherwise "non-professional" readers. Science Digest and Science News already served the high-school market, and Scientific American and New Scientist the professional, while Omni was arguably the first aimed at "armchair scientists" who were nevertheless well informed about technical issues. The next year, however, Time introduced Discover while the AAAS introduced Science '80 . Advertising dollars were spread among the different magazines, and those without deep pockets soon folded in the 1980s, notably Science Digest, while Science '80 merged with Discover. Omni appeared to weather this storm better than most, likely due to its wider selection of contents. In early 1996 publisher Bob Guccione suspended publication of the print edition of Omni, attributing the decision to the rising price of paper and postage. At the end of its print run the circulation was still reported to be more than 700,000 copies a month. [12]

In September 1997, Keeton died of complications from surgery for an intestinal obstruction. [13] The staff of Omni Internet was laid off, and no new content was added to the website after April 1998. General Media shut the site down and removed the Omni archives from the Internet in 2003.

Editions

International editions

Omni magazine was published in at least six languages. The content in the British editions closely followed the North American editions, but with a different numbering sequence. This was mainly accomplished by wrapping the American edition in a new cover which featured British advertising on the inside. At least one British edition was entirely unique and was shipped under the banner of Omni UK. An Italian edition was edited by Alberto Peruzzo and ran for 20 issues from 1981 to 1983, when Peruzzo detached the name Omni from his local edition. The Italian spin-off continued with the name Futura, while maintaining the same graphical style and with an unchanged intended audience, for another twenty issues, up to July 1985. The Japanese edition ran from 1982 to the summer of 1989 and included almost entirely different content from the American edition. The German edition began in 1984 and ended in early 1986. [14] The first Spanish edition appeared in November 1986 and ran until the summer of 1988. A Russian edition was published in the Soviet Union beginning in September 1989 in conjunction with the USSR Academy of Sciences. These editions were 80% in English and featured both Russian and English advertising. [15] Publisher Guccione arranged for 20,000 copies of the Russian edition to be placed on news stands and onboard internal Aeroflot flights in the Soviet Union in exchange for an equivalent number of copies of Science in Russia being distributed in the USA. Omni ran subscription adverts beginning in August 1989 for Science in Russia. This arrangement was intended to last for one year and was made possible by the Glasnost events in the Soviet Union.

Webzine

Omni first began its online presence as part of Compuserve in the summer of 1986. On September 5, 1993, Omni became part of the America Online service. The AOL unveiling took place at the 51st World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco. AOL subscribers had access to much of the Omni printed archive as well as forums, chat groups and new fiction. After the print magazine folded, the Omni Internet webzine was launched on September 15, 1996. For the first few months the new website was integrated into the AOL service, replacing the existing AOL Omni interface. Now free of pressure to focus on fringe science areas, Omni returned to its roots as the home of gonzo science writing, becoming one of the first large-scale venues to deliver a journalism geared specifically to cyberspace, complete with real-time coverage of major science events, chats and blogs with scientific luminaries, and interactive experiments that users could join. The world's top science fiction writers also joined in, writing collaborative fiction pieces for Omni's readers live online.

Television

A short-lived syndicated television show based on the magazine's format (and called Omni: The New Frontier) aired in the United States beginning in September 1981, hosted by Peter Ustinov. A French-language, dubbed version of the show appeared on the Canadian public TV network Radio-Québec (now known as Télé-Québec) in 1994. In 1985, extracts of the 1981 television series were re-edited and repackaged into four television shows hosted by Keir Dullea under the title Omni: Visions of the Future. Episodes were titled Futurebody, Space, Amazing Medicine and Lifestyles in the 21st Century. [16]

Comics

An equally short-lived spin-off magazine called Omni Comix debuted in 1995, and was published in the same glossy, newsstand magazine format as its sister publications Omni, Penthouse and Penthouse Comix . Omni Comix ran for only three issues, and the third and final issue featured an abortive revival of the 1960s superhero series T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents . [17]

Anthologies

From 1983 to 1986, Zebra Books published a series of anthologies containing selected non-fiction content from Omni magazine:

From 1984 to 1989, Zebra Books also published a series of Science Fiction anthologies containing stories published in Omni magazine with all volumes edited by Ellen Datlow who was also serving as the editor of Omni magazine at the time:

Ellen Datlow also edited and released the following Science Fiction anthologies of stories published in Omni magazine under the OMNI Books imprint:

Pharos books also published The Omni Future Almanac edited by Robert Weil.

Editorial staff

The magazine was initially edited by Frank Kendig, who left several months after the magazine's launch. Ben Bova, who was hired as fiction editor, was promoted to editor. Bova then left the magazine in 1981. Subsequent editors included Dick Teresi, Gurney Williams III, Patrice Adcroft, Keith Ferrell, and Pamela Weintraub (editor of Omni as one of the first major standalone webzines from 1996 to 1998). Kathleen Stein managed the magazine's prestigious Q&A interviews with the top scientists of the 20th century through 1998. Ellen Datlow was associate fiction editor of Omni under Robert Sheckley for one and a half years, and took over as fiction editor in 1981 until the magazine was suspended in 1998. In 2016, two print issues of OMNI were published by members of the original staff, including Weintraub and Datlow. Under the umbrella of PGMI, OMNI was reimagined as a series of print quarterlies starting in 2017, with Pamela Weintraub as editor-in-chief and Ellen Datlow as fiction editor. Other team members include Robert Killheffer and Corey S. Powell as executive editors and Matt Westphalen as creative director.

Ownership

In 2013, Glenn Fleishman undertook a research project with the goal of learning who currently owns the Omni intellectual property, and concluded that the rights to the fiction published in Omni had long since reverted to the original authors (who had only sold first North American publication rights), and that "possibly even the current ostensible owner" may not know who owns the rights to the rest of the content. [18]

Reboot

In August 2013, plans to launch "a new online project", described as an "Omni reboot" were reported by The Verge . The project was said to be under the guidance of producer Rick Schwartz and businessman/collector Jeremy Frommer who purchased a storage locker "on a whim" in November 2012 that was found to contain "a sizable chunk of the estate of Bob Guccione". The rediscovered materials include "cover drafts with greasy pencil notations, thousands of 35-mm slides, large-format chromes, magazines bundled with stapled paperwork, production materials, and untold amounts of photos and artwork." [19] [20]

Penthouse publishes new Omni

Penthouse Global Media acquired Omni in 2017, and announced plans for a new print issue, to commence publication on 24 October. [21] The issue was published, and billed as the Winter 2017 issue, the first on a quarterly schedule [22] but no further issues were ever published.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Cadigan</span> British-American science fiction author (born 1953)

Patricia Oren Kearney Cadigan is a British-American science fiction author, whose work is most often identified with the cyberpunk movement. Her novels and short stories often explore the relationship between the human mind and technology. Her debut novel, Mindplayers, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award in 1988.

<i>Penthouse</i> (magazine) Erotic magazine

Penthouse is a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione and published by Los Angeles–based Penthouse World Media, LLC. It combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictures of women that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore pornographic pictures of women.

<i>Galaxy Science Fiction</i> American science fiction magazine (1950–1980)

Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L. Gold, who rapidly made Galaxy the leading science fiction magazine of its time, focusing on stories about social issues rather than technology.

<i>If</i> (magazine) American science-fiction magazine

If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn.

<i>Asimovs Science Fiction</i> American science fiction magazine

Asimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine published by Penny Press and edited by Sheila Williams. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac Asimov's consent for the use of his name. It was originally titled Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and was quickly successful, reaching a circulation of over 100,000 within a year, and switching to monthly publication within a couple of years. George H. Scithers, the first editor, published many new writers who went on to be successful in the genre. Scithers favored traditional stories without sex or obscenity; along with frequent humorous stories this gave Asimov's a reputation for printing juvenile fiction, despite its success. Asimov was not part of the editorial team, but wrote editorials for the magazine.

<i>The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</i> American magazine

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. F&SF was quite different in presentation from the existing science fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single-column format, which in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley "set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Guccione</span> American photographer, painter and publisher (1930–2010)

Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione was an American photographer and publisher. He founded the adult magazine Penthouse in 1965. This was aimed at competing with Hugh Hefner's Playboy, but with more explicit erotic content, a special style of soft-focus photography, and in-depth reporting of government corruption scandals and the art world. By 1982 Guccione was listed in the Forbes 400 wealth list, and owned one of the biggest mansions in Manhattan. However, he made some extravagant investments that failed, and the growth of free online pornography in the 1990s greatly diminished his market. In 2003, Guccione's publishers filed for bankruptcy and he resigned as chairman.

<i>Startling Stories</i> US science fiction magazine

Startling Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue; the first was The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum. When Standard Magazines acquired Thrilling Wonder in 1936, it also gained the rights to stories published in that magazine's predecessor, Wonder Stories, and selections from this early material were reprinted in Startling as "Hall of Fame" stories. Under Weisinger the magazine focused on younger readers and, when Weisinger was replaced by Oscar J. Friend in 1941, the magazine became even more juvenile in focus, with clichéd cover art and letters answered by a "Sergeant Saturn". Friend was replaced by Sam Merwin Jr. in 1945, and Merwin was able to improve the quality of the fiction substantially, publishing Arthur C. Clarke's Against the Fall of Night, and several other well-received stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JC Comics</span> Defunct comic book publishing company

JC Comics was a comic book company primarily involved with the post-Silver Age iteration of the characters the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. JC Comics was owned by John Carbonaro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Datlow</span> American editor and anthologist (born 1949)

Ellen Datlow is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award.

Viva was an adult women's magazine that premiered in 1973 and ceased publication in 1980. Its full title was Viva, The International Magazine For Women, and it was published by Bob Guccione and his wife, Kathy Keeton. The first issue of Viva is dated October 1973. Guccione, who was the editor of Penthouse, an adult men's magazine, wanted to publish a companion title for women. Viva was essentially an erotic magazine for women, containing articles and fiction delving into women’s fantasies and exploring their sexuality, as well as reviews of the arts, interviews with well-known personalities, and fashion and beauty. It was published on a monthly basis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathy Keeton</span> American magazine publisher (1939–1997)

Kathryn "Kathy" Keeton was an American magazine publisher along with her partner, and later husband, Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione.

George Caragonne was an American comic book writer and editor, most notable for being co-founder of Penthouse Comix magazine. He committed suicide on July 20, 1995, by jumping off the 45th floor of the interior atrium of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.

<i>Super Science Stories</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Super Science Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine published by Popular Publications from 1940 to 1943, and again from 1949 to 1951. Popular launched it under their Fictioneers imprint, which they used for magazines, paying writers less than one cent per word. Frederik Pohl was hired in late 1939, at 19 years old, to edit the magazine; he also edited Astonishing Stories, a companion science fiction publication. Pohl left in mid-1941 and Super Science Stories was given to Alden H. Norton to edit; a few months later Norton rehired Pohl as an assistant. Popular gave Pohl a very low budget, so most manuscripts submitted to Super Science Stories had already been rejected by the higher-paying magazines. This made it difficult to acquire good fiction, but Pohl was able to acquire stories for the early issues from the Futurians, a group of young science fiction fans and aspiring writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Frost</span> American novelist

Gregory Frost is an American author of science fiction and fantasy, and directs a fiction writing workshop at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. A graduate of the Clarion Workshop, he has been invited back as instructor several times, including the first session following its move to the University of California at San Diego in 2007. He is also active in the Interstitial Arts Foundation.

Keeton v. Hustler Magazine, Inc., 465 U.S. 770 (1984), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that a state could assert personal jurisdiction over the publisher of a national magazine which published an allegedly defamatory article about a resident of another state, and where the magazine had wide circulation in that state.

<i>Penthouse Comix</i> Comic book series

Penthouse Comix was an American mass-market, magazine-sized comic book, published by Penthouse International/General Media Communications from spring 1994 through July 1998. Founded and initially edited by George Caragonne and Horatio Weisfeld, it ran 32 issues plus one special edition. Foreign versions of Penthouse Comix were still published as of 2011.

Horatio (Ray) Weisfeld is a writer/editor/publisher who co-founded mass-market comics magazines and developed other media properties. His creation of often irreverent commercial entertainment follows in the footsteps of his father, Irwin Weisfeld, a writer and manufacturer of ubiquitous mid-late 60s counter culture buttons.

<i>Science Fiction Quarterly</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Science Fiction Quarterly was an American pulp science fiction magazine that was published from 1940 to 1943 and again from 1951 to 1958. Charles Hornig served as editor for the first two issues; Robert A. W. Lowndes edited the remainder. Science Fiction Quarterly was launched by publisher Louis Silberkleit during a boom in science fiction magazines at the end of the 1930s. Silberkleit launched two other science fiction titles at about the same time: all three ceased publication before the end of World War II, falling prey to slow sales and paper shortages. In 1950 and 1951, as the market improved, Silberkleit relaunched Future Fiction and Science Fiction Quarterly. By the time Science Fiction Quarterly ceased publication in 1958, it was the last surviving science fiction pulp magazine, all other survivors having changed to different formats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Frommer</span> American financier and entrepreneur

Jeremy Frommer is an American financier and entrepreneur based in New Jersey. His career includes over two decades on Wall Street, working as a hedge fund and portfolio manager, and on the sell-side of the financial industry, building and selling two financial services companies. He is CEO of Jerrick Ventures Inc., a company that acquires, develops and produces content across all forms of media. Frommer is depicted in Michael Lewis' book Flash Boys. In 2012, Frommer discovered the "Guccione Collection," a large collection of unpublished works and photos owned by Bob Guccione, the founder of the Penthouse empire.

References

  1. 1 2 Ashley 2007 , p. 367
  2. ↑ "Omni Internet Relaunch". Locus . Vol. 36, no. 6. June 1996. p. 8.
  3. ↑ "Physical Omni Bites the Dust". Science Fiction Chronicle. Vol. 17, no. 4. May 1996. p. 6.
  4. ↑ Collins, Paul (7 January 2010). "We're not a robot-run world, yet (page 2 of 2)". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  5. ↑ "Omni Online Folds". Locus . Vol. 40, no. 5. May 1998. pp. 8, 61.
  6. 1 2 Ashley 2007 , p. 368
  7. ↑ Ashley 2007 , pp. 367–368
  8. ↑ St. Goddard, Ted (17 March 2012). "Quest for longevity entails paradoxes, compromises" . Winnipeg Free Press . Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  9. ↑ Brown, Charles. "Nova coming". Locus 208(1): January/February 1978. Cited in Ashley (2007); p. 367
  10. ↑ "Bob Guccione wanted to start a science magazine called Nova, but was stopped by a television program of the same name – so he switched to Omni".Klingel, John (1 January 1986). "What's in a name?". Folio .[ dead link ]
  11. ↑ Guccione, Bob (6 October 1978). "First word". Omni. Vol. 1, no. 1.
  12. ↑ Carmody, Deirdre (29 January 1996). "Guccione Halts Publication of Omni and Longevity" . The New York Times .
  13. ↑ Pogrebin, Robin (23 September 1997). "Kathy Keeton Guccione, 58, President of Magazine Company" . The New York Times.
  14. ↑ "Omni International Editions". Archived from the original on 12 September 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
  15. ↑ Lazarus, George (18 September 1989). "Omni Magazine Gets A Lesson In Russian" . Chicago Tribune .
  16. ↑ "Omni Advertising". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  17. ↑ "Omni Comix". ComicVine . Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  18. ↑ Fleishman, Glenn (9 July 2013). "Who Owns Omni?". BoingBoing . Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  19. ↑ Robertson, Adi (8 August 2013). "Omni, reboot: an iconic sci-fi magazine goes back to the future". The Verge . Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  20. ↑ Evans, Claire (28 June 2013). "OMNI Magazine Will Rise Again". Vice . Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  21. ↑ Rocket, Stubby (2017). "OMNI Magazine Back in Print This Fall". Tor.com . Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  22. ↑ Robertson, Adi (10 November 2017). "Omni magazine is officially back in print". The Verge. Retrieved 28 August 2020.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.