Omni (magazine)

''Omni'' was a science and science fiction magazine published in its domestic American market as well as the UK. It contained articles on science, parapsychology, and short works of science fiction and fantasy. 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. 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.

History

Concept

''Omni'' was founded by Kathy Keeton and her long-time collaborator and future husband Bob Guccione, the publisher of ''Penthouse'' magazine. 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".

Dick Teresi, an author and former ''Good Housekeeping'' editor, wrote the proposal for the magazine, from which a dummy was produced. 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. Guccione described the magazine as "an original if not controversial mixture of science fact, fiction, fantasy and the paranormal". 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.

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.

In September 1997, Keeton died of complications from surgery for an intestinal obstruction. 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 to the American edition. The German edition began in 1984 and ended in early 1986. 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. 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 ''Omnis 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''.

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''.

Anthologies

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

* ''The Omni Book of Space'' edited by Owen Davies (, published in October 1983)
* ''The Omni Book of Computers and Robots'' edited by Owen Davies (, published in October 1983)
* ''The Omni Book of Medicine'' edited by Owen Davies (, published in April 1984)
* ''The Omni Book of the Paranormal & the Mind'' edited by Owen Davies (, published in April 1984)
* ''The Omni Book of Psychology'' edited by Peter Tyson (, published in July 1986)
* ''The Omni Book of High-Tech Society 2000'' edited by Peter Tyson (, published in September 1986)

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:
* ''The First Omni Book of Science Fiction'' (, published in January 1984)
* ''The Second Omni Book of Science Fiction'' (, published in January 1984)
* ''The Third Omni Book of Science Fiction'' (, published in April 1985)
* ''The Fourth Omni Book of Science Fiction'' (, published in July 1985)
* ''The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction'' (, published in April 1987)
* ''The Sixth Omni Book of Science Fiction'' (, published in March 1989)
* ''The Seventh Omni Book of Science Fiction'' (, published in June 1989)

Ellen Datlow also edited and released the following Science Fiction anthologies of stories published in ''Omni'' magazine under the ''OMNI Books'' imprint:
* ''Omni Best Science Fiction One'' (, published in October 1992)
* ''Omni Best Science Fiction Two'' (, published in November 1992)
* ''Omni Best Science Fiction Three'' (, published in June 1993)
* ''Omni Visions One'' (, published in November 1993)
* ''Omni Visions Two'' (, published in July 1994)

Pharos books also published ''The Omni Future Almanac'' edited by Robert Weil.
* ''The Omni Future Almanac'' (, published in December 1983)

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 1996–1998). 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.

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."

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. The issue was published, and billed as the Winter 2017 issue, the first on a quarterly schedule but no further issues were ever published.

See also

*''Future Life''
*''Galileo''

References

Sources

*

External links

*

''Omni'' Magazine leads the upsurge of mass-audience science journalism
– lengthy review of the magazine shortly after its introduction.

''Omni'': The forgotten history of the best science magazine that ever was

* Archived Omni magazines on the Internet Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Omni (magazine)
Monthly magazines published in the United States
Defunct science fiction magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1978
Magazines disestablished in 1995
Online magazines with defunct print editions
Science fiction magazines established in the 1970s
Science and technology magazines published in the United States
Magazines published in New York City