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Fantascience Digest, v. 3, issue 1, whole no. 12, January-February 1940
Page 35
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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 35 THOSE COMPANIONS HARRY WARNER Ever since Standard Publications issued [underlined] Startling Stories, we have been deluged, to say the least, with new science fiction and fantasy magazines. And one odd thing about it is the fact that at least half of these new ones have been "companions". The new ones -- Marvel, Science Fiction, Astonishing, and so on -- have, almost from their beginnings, planned on having a companion. Now, is this a good thing? I say no, and I think most fans agree with me. Agreed then, that it isn't good, the fact remains that all of the magazines persist in having companions. Why? I ask. And I don't know the answer. Consider the case of a fantasy magazine--any one--that has had a fairly successful life up until now. Its circulation is increasing. There are at present about ten fantasy publications on the market, and for a magazine to be successful against those means that it must be good. Now, just why should it start up a companion magazine? One that will be almost identical with its parent? The only cases of companion magazines that I can recall having been really different are Fantastic Adventures and Unknown. Companion magazines do nothing but add to the number of magazines on the market; even when they're different, they almost never serve a useful purpose. The parent magazine continues to get the better stories. Again, why should the companions be started? One thing's sure: a companion magazine doesn't induce ten or fifteen thousand people to start reading science fiction. Maybe Startling Stories did -- but that came at a time when only four magazines were appearing on the market devoted to fantasy. It was a noticeable new one; now a new one isn't to be seen among the other ten. So it doesn't get more people to read science fiction, and so help the parent magazine's circulation. Nor any other magazines' circulations, either. It will hinder, more likely. Because with ten fantasy magazines, almost no one buys all. I doubt if there are one hundred individuals purchasing every fantasy magazine that appears today. At least, here's one who doesn't: it's too easy to get most in the second-hand bookshops, trade for them, or do without. And I should also venture to say that not more than a few thousand people, at most, buy as many as half-dozen fantasy magazines regularly. And all the other hundred thousand, to be conservative, buy from four or five magazines regularly to a copy of Astounding every six months. Now we're getting someplace. I don't know the total circulation of fantasy magazines today, but for convenience I'll say it's 500,000 copies--that is, that many counting the sales of one issue of all ten or twelve magazines: averaging, of course, about 50,000 each. Now: put an eleventh magazine on the market, not particu-
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FANTASCIENCE DIGEST Page 35 THOSE COMPANIONS HARRY WARNER Ever since Standard Publications issued [underlined] Startling Stories, we have been deluged, to say the least, with new science fiction and fantasy magazines. And one odd thing about it is the fact that at least half of these new ones have been "companions". The new ones -- Marvel, Science Fiction, Astonishing, and so on -- have, almost from their beginnings, planned on having a companion. Now, is this a good thing? I say no, and I think most fans agree with me. Agreed then, that it isn't good, the fact remains that all of the magazines persist in having companions. Why? I ask. And I don't know the answer. Consider the case of a fantasy magazine--any one--that has had a fairly successful life up until now. Its circulation is increasing. There are at present about ten fantasy publications on the market, and for a magazine to be successful against those means that it must be good. Now, just why should it start up a companion magazine? One that will be almost identical with its parent? The only cases of companion magazines that I can recall having been really different are Fantastic Adventures and Unknown. Companion magazines do nothing but add to the number of magazines on the market; even when they're different, they almost never serve a useful purpose. The parent magazine continues to get the better stories. Again, why should the companions be started? One thing's sure: a companion magazine doesn't induce ten or fifteen thousand people to start reading science fiction. Maybe Startling Stories did -- but that came at a time when only four magazines were appearing on the market devoted to fantasy. It was a noticeable new one; now a new one isn't to be seen among the other ten. So it doesn't get more people to read science fiction, and so help the parent magazine's circulation. Nor any other magazines' circulations, either. It will hinder, more likely. Because with ten fantasy magazines, almost no one buys all. I doubt if there are one hundred individuals purchasing every fantasy magazine that appears today. At least, here's one who doesn't: it's too easy to get most in the second-hand bookshops, trade for them, or do without. And I should also venture to say that not more than a few thousand people, at most, buy as many as half-dozen fantasy magazines regularly. And all the other hundred thousand, to be conservative, buy from four or five magazines regularly to a copy of Astounding every six months. Now we're getting someplace. I don't know the total circulation of fantasy magazines today, but for convenience I'll say it's 500,000 copies--that is, that many counting the sales of one issue of all ten or twelve magazines: averaging, of course, about 50,000 each. Now: put an eleventh magazine on the market, not particu-
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