I’ve been a subscriber to LOCUS: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field since the early 1970s. Charles N. Brown was the editor for decades and guided this initially mimeograph monthly newsletter to the slick magazine it is today. Sadly, Brown died in 2009 at the age of 72. The current editor, Liza Groen Trombi, started out her current editorial in the July 2022 issue of LOCUS this way: “I have been told I am not being direct enough about this, so here it is, out loud, or at least on paper. We are in trouble.”
LOCUS, like most print magazines, is in trouble because of paper shortages (and escalating costs for paper and printing), costs of distribution, and the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The July 2022 issue of LOCUS is #738. But the immediate situation for LOCUS is dire. I have sent my donation to LOCUSMAG.COM/DONATE. Please consider making a tax deductible donation to a Science Fiction institution that’s been around since 1968…but is now facing a difficult future full of problems and threats to its survival. Do you subscribe to any magazines?
I was a LOCUS subscriber for 7-8 years in the 70s but dropped it when my interests moved from SF and fantasy to other things. Over the years I’ve subscribed to lots of magazines, but in recent years I find that I just don’t have the time for them, plus they’ve gotten terribly expensive. Currently I’m down to HARPER’S, THE ATLANTIC, and THE NEW YORKER. I’ll probably stick with these three to the bitter end but it’s not likely I’ll add any others.
Michael, I’m certainly not adding more magazines to read at this point. Like you, I feel overwhelmed by the number of books that keep arriving at my mailbox and Library. And, I’ve made a conscious effort in 2022 to reduce my book, CD, and Blu-ray purchases by 33%. So far, so good.
From about 20 subsctiptions 20 years ago to just two now: THE NEW YORKER and CONSUMER REPORT. Online reading has certainly replaced a lot of it. And also Phil subscriptions were a lot of it but I got several crime magazines and some literary ones.. I do miss NEW YORK MAGAZINE especially.
Patti, Diane gets BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS, REAL SIMPLE, and BUFFALO SPREE. I’m down to LOCUS and AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE and THE ECONOMIST and THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS.
Like Patti, I miss NEW YORK, but I’ve ended all subscriptions. I was getting EQMM and Hitchcock for years for my friend Bob in England, reading the stories that interested me before sending them on to him every two or three months, but he’s gone now. I do get Geroge Easter’s DEADLY PLEASURE online, and I like having it on the laptop for easy reading and reference. But that’s about it. We do get magazines from AARP and GEICO and other minor things like that, but no subscriptions other than DP.
Jeff, I used to subscribe to GALAXY, IF, WORLDS OF TOMORROW, AMAZING, FANTASTIC, and F&SF for a few years on and off. But, I’ve be with LOCUS almost from the beginning. I subscribed to THE ARM CHAIR DETECTIVE and THE MYSTERY FANCIER, too.
NEWSWEEK, THR SPORTING NEWS, NEW YORK, almost all the mystery fanzines, BILLBOARD, PLAYBOY, ROLLING STONE, others that don’t pop into my head this minute. To be honest, I am glad I don’t have piles of unread magazines like I used to in the old days, waiting to be read.
I’ve mostly subscribed when magazines weren’t available on newsstands (the only newsstands that ever carried WHISPERS I had access to were Moonstone Bookcellars in DC, which closed with the death of its owner, and, spottily, Hole in the Wall Books in Falls Church, VA, which closed after WHISPERS had folded and I had decamped north), or when subs were vastly cheaper (HARPER’S has been one thus on and off over the years). My initial AHMM copies were often chewed up in the 1978 mails, and so these days, I’ll often buy subs in envelopes when available, as well (as with the newsstand fiction magazines, for the most part).
I’ve been buying LOCUS spottily off the newsstands over the years…
Todd, I would hate to see LOCUS go away. It’s my best source for SF and Fantasy book reviews.
I have subscribed to Locus for about 50 years. I subsribed to Rolling Stone from its inception until about two years ago when it became more interested in Hip Hop and Pop artists rather than rock n’ roll. I buy F&SF and Asimov’s at B&N when they have authors that interest me.
Steve, glad you’re another long-time subscriber to LOCUS. With all the YEAR’S BEST anthologies, I just wait for the yearly volumes instead of buying the monthly magazines.
Except I like Albert Cowdrey and Matthew Hughes in F$SF. They never make the best of.
Steve, Matthew Hughes just sent me an email about a new book he’s self-publishing on AMAZON: MIXED BAG. I’ve ordered it and you’ll see a review of it on this blog soon.
Jeff, back in the 1950s and 1960s, my parents subscribed to over a dozen magazines. LIFE, TIME, NEWSWEEK, SATURDAY EVENING POST, LOOK, READER’S DIGEST, etc. We always had piles of magazines about the house.
It somehow was almost too difficult or too expensive in Germany to subscribe to Locus or Science Fiction Chronicle so I have them just from 1984 to 1988 (started a 5 year subscription …) but whenever I came to London and later to NYC I would look for them.
Really interesting for a total foreigner, especially the reports on SF cons, the HUGOs etc.
Rather OT but a fond memory:
Once at one of my shopping sprees at the Forbidden Planet in Manhattan I met Charles Brown or was introduced to him by the store people and we decided to have a beer. He took us to the Corner Bistro which became my favourite place where we talked about all aspects of SF – he really was a knowledgeable guy! So on every later visit I would go the FP on Broadway for shopping and then through Chelsea and its nice streets to the Bistro and maybe even on to the Hudson River.
Last time I was there was in 2009 when I showed my new wife around NYC before driving to the Niagara Falls.
Those were the days!