Asimov’s, Analog and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction have been purchased by a new owner. Jason Sanford reported the transactions on his Patreon page.
Sanford says the new owner of the magazines is Steven Salpeter and a group of investors. More information about the buyers is in Sanford’s report.
The Asimov’s, Analog and several other Dell magazines changed their websites to identify the new ownership over the weekend. F&SF, which was owned separately by Gordon Van Gelder, has yet to make an update.
[Thanks to Jason Sanford for the story.]
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The two mystery magazines as well: Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, which I believe Sanford did not mention.
Oh, crap. Investors.
John Scalzi has offered to sponsor the Astounding Award through the Scalzi Family Foundation if the new publisher isn’t interested: Post on Whatever
Salzi (through the Scalzi Family Foundation) is offering to sponser the Astounding Award if needed.
Ellen Datlow: Yes, those mystery magazines are part of the Dell Magazines imprint that all changed their ownership identification on their websites over the weekend.
Mark, there’s nothing wrong with investors. Steven Salpeter, the principal here, was a literary agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd., so he certainly know the book business. Let’s wait and see what happens.
@Cat Eldridge
At least someone in the group knows the business. So often no one does, and then, after running it into the ground, they sell all of the “assets” to make a profit. (KMart, Sears, JoAnn’s)
JoAnn’s is still open, just primarily in larger markets. There’s still two here in Maine one here in Portland where there’s roughly 400,000 people within an hours drive of here,
The other is in Bangor which admittedly is a much smaller market but they kept that one open. The two that closed were In rural parts of the state with very low population densities.
Same for the last Kmart here which closed a few months ago, it was located in a part of the state where the population was fairly low and couldn’t support it.
I’ll be curious to see what happens with my Weightless Books F&SF subscription. Also what options for e-subscriptions for all 3 might be in the future.
Sorry, but JoAnn’s is closing all its stores and going completely out of business. I sew and do needlework so I’m sad to see them go.
@Cat JoAnn is now going to close all of its remaining stores.
Pay wall on the link. Will there be editorial chamges?
The link is not paywalled.
There are horrified responses all over Bluesky. I understand the need for concern. I understand the feelings of doom and gloom every time something changes in genre publishing. We’ve lost too many genre magazines. I don’t want this to turn out badly, either.
Some people are also worried that F&SF was included — because they are worried about the big three being held by one company. But that might be the only way to keep them all going in the current market.
Still, it would be nice if people would at least read Jason Sanford’s post and try to check some of the information first. The fact that a literary agent is involved should be a good sign. (We can at least hope.) Some people on Bluesky have already decided that the magazines were bought by a faceless venture capitalist who is going to fill the magazines with Ayn Rand and Heinlein clones written by AI.
How come people believe a puzzle magazine company was better at running genre magazines than a literary agent?
As a current subscriber to all four magazines, I am optimistic about the new ownership. F&SF was in particular trouble lately.
I don’t think it’s likely that the investors are seeing a goldmine here. It’s newsstand fiction magazine publishing, which hasn’t been a big part of the SF/fantasy zeitgeist for a long time. For years my primary contribution as a Hugo nominator was to pick my favorite stories from these mags and never see them make the ballot.
Laura says JoAnn is now going to close all of its remaining stores.
Damn. There’ll be a lot of very unhappy people as they did fill a a bricks and mortar retail niche not done by anyone else.
@laura
They’d already announced they were closing effectively all the stores in California, including a large one in a busy shopping center – but that store didn’t get a lot of in-person business, when I was in. This morning most of the thread had been sold, but a lot of stuff was still available. (Sock yarn, embroidery needles, a crochet hook, a pair of cute earrings, and a useless pair of magnifying lenses (blurry images at all distances). My haul.)
All titles to be consolidated under the title “Elon Musk’s MAGAzine.” But seriously — the first sentence was attempted black humor — I’ll be pleasantly surprised if all 3 SF magazines are still a going concern a year from now. (F&SF barely seems one now.) Hoping that I’m wrong, but I can’t shake the feeling that consolidation into 1 or 2 titles seems likely. Best of luck to all concerned.
CatE: a daughter-in-law of mine is going to be out of work with the closing of JoAnn. Yes, they’re all going.
And yes, there is a problem with investors: 95% (at least), demand ROI above all, and it must increase every year.
Based on Sanford’s report, I’d say there are grounds for optimism: it appears that Steven Salpeter, who is the main figure behind the purchase, is mostly undertaking it because he’s a big fan of SFF.
And removing F&SF from Gordon van Gelder’s control is unquestionably a good thing, probably the magazine’s only chance of survival.
As Lis has noted, Sheila Williams commented on Scalzi’s blog that the new owners are committed to supporting the Astounding Award.
The 2021 press release on Steven Salpeter joining Assemble Media linked by Sanford shows the likely motive for buying the magazines.
The company packages book deals and develops IP for film and TV. They have their own magazine Assemble Artifacts and some of the writers featured in it like Alexis Nedd, author of Don’t Hate the Player, have landed big projects.
It’s not a venture capital firm looking to squeeze every dollar out of these magazines through enshittification, but it’s not a labor of love from fans either.
I’m sorta curious in whether the new owners will honor my F&SF lifetime subscription.
John Lorentz says I’m sorta curious in whether the new owners will honor my F&SF lifetime subscription.
Why wouldn’t they?
Well, it has been nearly 50 years since I purchased it.
(I’ve certainly received more than my money’s worth for the $100 I paid in 1978.)
@Cat Eldridge: Why wouldn’t they?
T$R didn’t honor lifetime subscriptions to Ares magazine when they bought SPI, its publisher.
(Though ‘bought’ here is in the Don Corleone sense of the word. T$R richly deserved its final fate.)
The F&SF web page still says “bimonthly”, so don’t expect an update at lightning speed.
I’m actually stunned that the F&SF website is showing the last published issue. For a long time it was stuck on something like May/Jun 2023 I think.
I only saw two issues of F&SF last year: Winter 2024 and Summer 2024. Nothing since. I have been mourning it, and will be so happy if it comes back.