Judith Sims ( 1939March 25, 1996) was an American journalist, music critic, and magazine editor. She was the first editor of the rock magazine ''

TeenSet ''TeenSet'' (originally ''The Teen Set'') was an American music and fan magazine published by Capitol Records. Beginning in 1964 as a free album insert for fans of the Beach Boys, the magazine was sold separately in 1965 and it grew in popularity. ...

'' in the 1960s. Later she was the Los Angeles bureau chief for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''.

Career

Sims was the first editor of the rock magazine ''

'' in the 1960s, writing influential pieces about

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", relea ...

and

the Doors The Doors were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential ro ...

. For ''TeenSet'' she toured with

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

in 1966, and after ''TeenSet'' she worked publicity for

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

from 1969 to 1972."It's Not Exactly the Staff of Life". ''Rolling Stone'', July 20, 1972. She contributed to the UK ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'' in the 1970s, and she was the Los Angeles bureau chief for ''

''. She edited the college supplement ''

Ampersand The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram , representing the conjunction "and". It originated as a ligature of the letters ''et''—Latin for "and". Etymology Traditionally in English, when spelling aloud, any letter that ...

'' and the film review publication ''The Movie Magazine''. She wrote pieces for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

'' magazine, and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. Sims strongly advocated copyright protection for writers. She was the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the

National Writers Union National Writers Union (NWU), founded on 19 November 1981, is the trade union in the United States for freelance and contract writers: journalists, book and short fiction authors, business and technical writers, web content providers and poets. ...

Personal life

Sims lived with her husband in

Echo Park, Los Angeles Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known ...

, for two decades, then moved with him to Oregon in the early 1990s. She died of cancer in 1996 in

Roseburg, Oregon Roseburg is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is in the Umpqua River, Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon and is the county seat and most populous city of Douglas County, Oregon, Douglas County. Founded in 1851, the population was 23,683 a ...

, at the age of 56. ''Rolling Stone'' editor

Ben Fong-Torres Benjamin Fong-Torres ( 方振豪; Cantonese: Fong Chan Ho; born January 7, 1945) is an American rock journalist best known for his association with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine (until 1981) and the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (from around 1982). B ...

eulogized her, saying that she had taken ''TeenSet'' above the field of teen magazines to become "one of the first publications to reflect the social and musical changes of those times". He remembered how she and he "were partners on every level", flying back and forth between San Francisco and Los Angeles in the early 1970s, until June 1972 when she met her soon-to-be husband. Fong-Torres said that Sims gave him an early journalism platform at ''TeenSet'' along with music/film critic

Jacoba Atlas Jacoba Atlas is an American executive producer in television, also publishing as a journalist, music critic, novelist, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. She won a Peabody Award, an Emmy Award and a CableACE Award for ''Survivors of the ...

(later a television executive producer) and rock journalist Jerry Hopkins. Music critic David Wagner, writing in 1968, agreed that Sims was "an intelligent, clear-eyed interpreter" of the music scene, improving ''TeenSet'' until it was the best teen magazine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Judith Year of birth missing 1996 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers American business executives Journalists from California American women journalists Deaths from cancer in Oregon Writers from Los Angeles American magazine editors Women magazine editors