OMNI was both a science magazine and science fiction magazine. Science Magazine was a half-hour television show produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1975 to 1979 A science fiction magazine is a Magazine that publishes primarily Science fiction, in print or on the internet or both 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"[1]
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History
OMNI was launched by Kathy Keeton, long-time companion and later wife of Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione, and initially edited by Frank Kendig, who left several months after the magazine's launch. Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione (b December 17 1930 in Brooklyn New York) is the founder of the adult magazine ''Penthouse'' and was until his resignation Kathryn "Kathy" Keeton (b 1939 South Africa &ndash September 19 1997, New York New York) was a magazine publisher along with Penthouse, a Men 's Magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and Soft-core pornographic pictorials Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione (b December 17 1930 in Brooklyn New York) is the founder of the adult magazine ''Penthouse'' and was until his resignation Ben Bova, who was hired as Fiction Editor, was promoted to Editor, leaving the magazine in 1981. Benjamin William Bova (born November 8, 1932) is an American Science fiction author and editor 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 Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the Nova is a Popular science Television series from the US produced by WGBH Boston [2] 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. Ellen Datlow (born December 31, 1949) is an American Speculative fiction editor and anthologist 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. Freeman John Dyson FRS (born December 15, 1923) is an English-born American theoretical Physicist and Mathematician, famous for his Alvin Toffler (born October 3, 1928) is an American Writer and futurist, known for his works discussing
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", "Johnny Mnemonic", Harlan Ellison's novella "Mefisto in Onyx", and George R. R. Martin's "Sandkings". Fantasy literature is Fantasy in written form Historically speaking the majority of fantasy works have been literature Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is a bestselling American Author, Critic, political writer and speaker. William Ford Gibson (born March 17 1948 is an American - Canadian writer who has been called the "noir prophet" of the Cyberpunk subgenre Burning Chrome (ISBN 0-06-053982-8 is a collection of short stories written by William Gibson. George Raymond Richard Martin ( September 20, 1948) sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American Author and Screenwriter 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". Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American Author, Screenwriter, Musician, Columnist, Firestarter is a novel by Stephen King originally published in 1980 "The End of the Whole Mess" is a short Science fiction story by Stephen King which was first published in Omni Magazine in 1986 and OMNI also brought the works of numerous painters to the attention of a large audience, such as H.R. Giger and De Es Schwertberger. Hans Ruedi Giger (ˈɡi ɡɚ (born at Chur, Grisons Canton, February 5, 1940) is an Academy Award -winning Swiss De Es Schwertberger (born Dieter Schwertberger 1942, Gresten Austria) commonly known simply as De Es (since 1972 is an Austrian
The bulk of the magazine, meanwhile, profiled science and scientists with a visionary, gonzo-style science journalism rooted in story-telling, credibility, and authorial voice. "Gonzo" redirects here For other uses see Gonzo (disambiguation Gonzo journalism is a style of Journalism which is written OMNI's Q&A Interviews constituted a collective oral history of 20th-century science told by the world's greatest thinkers in areas from evolutionary biology to chaos theory to space. OMNI celebrated science with an edgy entertaining patter and irreverence. OMNI 's pro-technology orientation has been compared to the later magazine Wired. Wired is a full-color monthly American Magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993
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. Science Digest was a monthly American magazine published by the Hearst Corporation from 1937 through 1986 Science News is an American bi-weekly Magazine devoted to short articles about new scientific and technical developments typically gleaned from recent scientific Scientific American is a Popular science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly since August 28, 1845, making it New Scientist is a weekly International science magazine and website covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English -speaking The next year, however, Time introduced Discover while the AAAS introduced Science '80. Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and Discover is a Science magazine that publishes articles about Science for a general audience The American Association for the Advancement of Science (or AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between Scientists defends scientific freedom encourages Science 80 was a general science magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS 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. Pseudoscience is defined as a body of knowledge methodology belief or practice that is claimed to be Scientific or made to appear scientific but does not adhere to the 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. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995
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. Kathryn "Kathy" Keeton (b 1939 South Africa &ndash September 19 1997, New York New York) was a magazine publisher along with Breast cancer is a Cancer that starts in the cells of the Breast in women and men 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 television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (ˈjuːstɪnɒf or /ˈuːstɪnɒf/ 16 April 1921 – 28 March 2004) born Peter Alexander Baron von Ustinow 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. The Fly is a 1986 Science fiction / Horror film produced by Brooksfilms and 20th Century Fox, directed by David Cronenberg
- 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 Ghostbusters, the Proton Pack appears on a fictional front cover of the magazine. Zuul redirects here For the videogame see Zool. Ghostbusters (titled on-screen as Ghost Busters) is The Proton Pack is a fictional piece of nuclear accelerative machinery created by the Ghostbusters.
- 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. Real Genius is a 1985 Comedy film starring Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret.
- In 2010, a future OMNI issue appeared in front of Roy Scheider on the beach. 2010 is a Science fiction film released in 1984 directed by Peter Hyams.
- 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. Star Trek IV The Voyage Home ( Paramount Pictures, 1986) is the fourth feature Film based on the Star Trek Science fiction
- 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. Jurassic Park is a 1993 Science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel of the same name by Michael Alan Grant is a fictional character from the Jurassic Park franchise.
- 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. The X-Files is a Peabody, Golden Globe and Emmy Award -winning American Science fiction television series created by Chris Carter " Fallen Angel " was the tenth episode of the first season of The X-Files science-fiction television series created by Chris " Fallen Angel " was the tenth episode of the first season of The X-Files science-fiction television series created by Chris F. Luder.
References
External links
- www.omnimag.com at the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
- Omni "Shrine" Wiki for sharing info and remembrances about Omni Magazine
- Omni Magazine leads the upsurge of mass-audience science journalism, lengthy review of the magazine shortly after its introduction
- Omni Magazine: Fiction Index stories that appeared in Omni
- French site and images from: Omni magazine from 1978 to April 1989
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