
January 1991 issue of
Omni
OMNI was a science magazine and science fiction magazine published
in the USA
. It contained articles on science fact and
short works of
science fiction. The
first issue was published in October 1978, the last in Winter 1995,
with an internet version lasting until 1998.
Bob Guccione described the magazine in its
first issue as "
an original if not controversial mixture of
science fact, fiction, fantasy and the paranormal"
History
OMNI was launched by
Kathy
Keeton, long-time companion and later wife of
Penthouse magazine publisher
Bob Guccione. Before launch it was
referred to as
Nova, but the name was
changed before the first issue to avoid a conflict with the
PBS science show of the same name,
NOVA.
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, leaving the magazine in 1981. After Kendig
and Bova, Editors of
OMNI included
Richard Teresi,
Gurney Williams III,
Patrice Adcroft,
Keith Ferrell, and
Pamela Weintraub (editor of
OMNI
Online).
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 folded in
1998.
Sherry Baker was the Continuum editor, now
working as a freelance editor and writer in Atlanta,
Georgia
. The very first edition had an exclusive
interview with renowned physicist,
Freeman
Dyson, the second edition with American writer and futurist,
Alvin Toffler.
OMNI developed a dual personality during its life. In its
early run, its high circulation (permitting payment for stories
many times higher than that of other science fiction magazines),
coupled with some outstanding fiction editors, allowed it to
attract prominent
sf and
fantasy writers, and it published a
number of stories that have become genre classics, such as
Orson Scott Card's "
Unaccompanied Sonata",
William Gibson's "
Burning Chrome" and "
Johnny Mnemonic",
Harlan Ellison's novella "Mefisto in Onyx",
and
George R. R. Martin's "Sandkings". The magazine also
published original sf/f by William Burroughs, Joyce Carol Oates,
Jonathan Carroll, T. Coraghessan Boyle, and other mainstream
writers. The magazine excerpted
Stephen
King's novel
Firestarter,
and featured a 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 and
De Es Schwertberger.
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 between the different magazines,
and those without deep pockets soon folded in the early 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 its later years, especially the last year or two of the print
publication, OMNI was criticized for weighting its coverage more
toward
pseudo-scientific topics like
UFOs and ESP. Some have speculated that this may have been an
effort to increase circulation during leaner years, but the
strategy backfired. Though
OMNI 's treatment of these
topics was essentially skeptical, the weighting nonetheless damaged
its credibility and led, in part, to its demise. Guccione shut down
the print version of the magazine following the Winter 1995 issue
due to waning popularity and the many financial difficulties
plaguing his company,
General
Media.
Webzine
After the print magazine folded in 1996, the
OMNI Internet
webzine was launched. 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.
Though the website generated large traffic, it did not turn a
profit. In 1998,
Kathy Keeton, whose
vision inspired
OMNI, died from complications of
breast cancer, the staff of
OMNI
Internet was laid off, and no new content was added to the
website. General Media shut the site down and removed the
OMNI archives from the Internet in 2003.
TV
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 voice over of
the show appeared on "Radio Québec" in Canada during 1994.
References in popular culture
- In The Fly, Stathis
threatens to send Veronica's teleportation story to OMNI
-- his own publication, PARTICLE magazine, created for the
film, is a clear nod to OMNI.
- In the 1989 romantic film Say Anything, Diane Court has an
issue in her bedroom next to her desk. There is also an issue
visible in the garbage can in the background when James Court is
sitting in the bathtub after having his credit cards declined.
- In The Breakfast
Club Anthony Michael
Hall's character (the brain/nerd) is wearing an OMNI
t-shirt in the last scene of the film.
- In Ghostbusters, the
Proton Pack appears on a fictional front
cover of the magazine.
- In the 1985 movie Real
Genius, Kent has an oversized mock-up of OMNI on
the wall of his lab, with his face adorning the cover.
- In the film 2010: The Year We Make
Contact, a future OMNI issue appeared in front of Heywood
Floyd (played by Roy Scheider) as he
used his laptop on the beach.
- In Star Trek IV:
The Voyage Home, a fellow passenger can be seen reading
OMNI magazine on the bus that Kirk and Spock take across the Golden
Gate Bridge.
- On the 2005 album Robot Hive/Exodus by the band
Clutch, the song "Mice and Gods" references OMNI Magazine
in the very first line of the song.
- In the film Jurassic
Park, Tim Murphy mentions having read an article by
Alan Grant in
Omni magazine.
- In The X-Files episode
Fallen Angel, fellow UFO
enthusiast Max Fenig informs Agent Mulder
that he has read Mulder's articles in OMNI under the pen name 'M.F.
Luder' — an anagram for 'F. Mulder'.
- In Sabrina
the Teenage Witch, Zelda briefly mentions OMNI
Magazine.
See also
References
- Guccione, B. First word, OMNI 1(1):6, October
1978
- E-mail with Jules Siegel, an editor
External links
Some of the archives can be located at
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.omnimag.com/ Warning: the
links past Jul 21, 2003 will go to Penthouse magazine instead, but
most of them are web-archived Omni pages, including chats, short
stories, and articles.