Judith Sims ( 1939March 25, 1996) was an American journalist, music critic, and magazine editor. She was the editor of the rock magazine '' TeenSet'' 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, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''.

Career

Judith Sims was the editor of the rock magazine '' TeenSet'' during 1965–1969, writing many influential pieces considering groups such as the Beatles,

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a Canadian-American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1966 by Canadians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin (musician), Dewey Martin and Americans Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely know ...

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

and more. During her tenure with ''TeenSet'' she toured with

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

, covered multiple music scenes, rubbed elbows with

Derek Taylor Derek Wyn Taylor (7 May 1932 – 8 September 1997) was a British journalist, writer, publicist and record producer. He is best known for his role as press officer to the Beatles, with whom he worked in 1964 and then from 1968 to 1970, and was ...

, and considered issues of cultural and race within ''TeenSet''. After ''TeenSet/AUM'' she worked publicity for

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

from 1969 to 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. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' and ''Disc and Music Echo'' 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 grammatical conjunction, conjunction "and". It originated as a typographic ligature, ligature of the letters of the word (Latin for "and"). Etymology Tradi ...

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

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

'' magazine, and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

''. 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) is a trade union in the United States for freelance and contract writers founded on 19 November 1981. NWU is affiliated with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Authors Forum (IAF), a ...

. ''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) ...

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 Holo ...

(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. She is a focus of the book entitled "''TeenSet, Teen Fan Magazines, and Rock Journalism: Don't Let the Name Fool You''" through the University of Mississippi Press, by Allison Bumsted.

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 know ...

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

Roseburg, Oregon Roseburg is the most populous city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Oregon. It is located in the Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon. Founded in 1851, the population was 23,683 at the 2020 census, making it the principal city of th ...

, at the age of 56.

References

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