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Drawing the Lines around a Moving Object
Twenty years ago, it was very easy to look at something and say whether or not it was a magazine, newspaper or book. With the advent of online magazines, new print technologies and ebooks, it has become significantly more complicated. I regularly run into people who try to claim that online magazines and ebooks aren't "real" books or magazines. As someone who publishes and enjoys both, I find that quite frustrating. Sometimes I find it annoying enough to poke the bear.
After one of the more pleasant and civil poking of the bears, Mark R. Kelly, editor of Locus Online, blogged the following:
"(Again — sorry to belabor this — where to draw the line? Is Tor.com or io9 a 'magazine'? [Tor.com ranked 3rd in the Locus Poll for 'Best Magazine'.] ... So, is everything online a magazine? [Slate calls itself a "daily magazine on the Web".] Where is the line between magazine and blog and mere website? I guess I will be careful not to go there.)"
Mark's final question is a good one and many of his sentiments are ones I've heard before. Let's see if we can come up with an answer...
Courtesy of the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
Magazine: "a a periodical containing miscellaneous pieces (as articles, stories, poems) and often illustrated; also : such a periodical published online b : a similar section of a newspaper usually appearing on Sunday c : a radio or television program presenting usually several short segments on a variety of topics"
Periodical: "being published with a fixed interval between the issues or numbers"
Newspaper: "a paper that is printed and distributed usually daily or weekly and that contains news, articles of opinion, features, and advertising"
Mark didn't ask about newspapers, but I included them because, as I pondered his question, it became apparent that, by these definitions, today's newspapers could be considered a subset of magazines. In fact, a number of non-fiction magazines become very hard to classify as one or the other.
Mark's other categories, blogs and websites, are methods of delivery, just like paper. For example, an online magazine is a website and can be powered by blogging software. A blog or website, however, doesn't have to be a magazine, just like something printed on paper doesn't have to be a book, magazine or newspaper.
Blog: "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer"
Website: "a group of World Wide Web pages usually containing hyperlinks to each other and made available online by an individual, company, educational institution, government, or organization"
So when does a website or blog become a magazine or sheets of paper, a book or magazine? Bookstores and libraries tend to rely on ISBN for books and ISSN for magazines. Not everyone publishing a book or magazine will necessarily purchase or request one of these for their publication, but they should still meet the eligibility requirements:
"ISSN are assigned to electronic publications as far as they are serials or other continuing resources. However commercial web sites, personal weblogs and web pages, web pages which contain only links to other URLs are not eligible for ISSN."
Being eligible for an ISSN doesn't mean you are a magazine, but being ineligible means that you are not. Interestingly, just this past month, Sybil's Garage, a publication that is widely accepted to be a magazine, shifted to using an ISBN and yearly print-on-demand publication. According to Matt Kressel, editor of Sybil's Garage, "since the new issue has an ISBN, I'm considering it an anthology. From now on it will be an anthology series with magazine-like content." With the blink of an eye, a magazine has been turned into a book. Absent the ISBN, would you really know? Are issues of F&SF merely small anthologies with fiction and non-fiction hiding behind an ISSN? It certainly seems that the line between the two is now not much more than a publisher's "because I want it that way."
Going back to Mark's post, he raises the issue of two publications that are certainly confounding at first glance: io9 and Tor.com. I emailed Charlie Jane Anders from io9 and asked if io9 considered itself blog or a magazine. Her response, "you can call us either one." Liz Gorinsky and Irene Gallo consider Tor.com "a magazine, along the lines of Salon or Slate." I'm inclined to agree. I have no doubt that io9 and Tor.com would be able to secure an ISSN, if they haven't already. If printed on glossy paper, these massive monthly tomes would likely be considered magazines. Paper, however, would stifle these publications. They thrive in the medium they were designed for and break with the traditional conventions required by print distribution. For both, active community involvement is crucial to a degree that is alien to a print publication. Sure, some print publications like Asimov's have their own forums and websites, but these two are fully integrated to a level a print publication can never be. Does this make io9 and Tor.com any less of a magazine? ...or are they the next generation?
The real problem arises with the whole periodical concept of having issues. Here at Clarkesworld, we very obviously employ an issue-based model. Lightspeed serializes its issue on a regular schedule over the course of a month. Subterranean serializes its seasonal issues on an unknown schedule.Tor.com and io9 just keep putting out new content. No schedule. No issues. This flies in the face of current definition of magazine. Content is listed chronologically, so it could be considered a daily, but the lines aren't obviously drawn.
If your head isn't spinning enough, let me introduce something else. Several print magazines like Asimov's and online magazines like us are publishing ebook editions of their magazines. Are those ebook editions real magazines? They should be considered such, but what if I want to put Clarkesworld into Apple's ibookstore? Guess what? It has to have an ISBN. They treat a magazine like a book. (This, by the way, is the reason we're not in their store. I'm not purchasing ISBNs for all 47 issues. You can buy epub editions straight from us instead.) More complications? Io9 is available from the Amazon Kindle store as a "blog subscription" and Tor.com's ebooks are single story releases from the magazine.
How about podcasts? Aren't they magazines by the stated definition? EscapePod, one of the best known fiction podcasts, bills itself as "the premier science fiction podcast magazine." Podcasts are clearly defined by episode/issues. Just because the original source is audio, doesn't make them any less a magazine than F&SF, who, by the way have an audio edition of their magazine. But wait, does this make all podcasts magazines?
Is Clarkesworld's podcast a separate magazine? Not as far as we are concerned. It's part of the magazine, an extension, just like the ebook editions. Circling back around to Mark, he refers to Locus Online as a website, but judging by the website they are very intent on it being considered separate from the magazine, despite sharing content, being owned by Locus (their domain is still registered to Charlie), and being the only online presence for the magazine. Should we consider Locus Online a separate magazine or just value-added extension to Locus Magazine, similar to the websites for Realms of Fantasy and Cosmos?
Forget online vs. print. The real issue is what we are willing to accept as a magazine. The concept of periodical is being challenged. It was only inevitable in a world of 24-hour supermarkets, news, and other conveniences, that magazines would challenge that boundary. Personal experience tells me that old guard collectors and perhaps some librarians will likely resist the change, but the new, non-traditional magazines are certainly attracting readers.
Feel free to disagree. Obviously, I haven't found the magic equation for defining a magazine, but hopefully, I've asked some decent questions and given you something to think about. Please consider sharing your thoughts with us. This is a conversation worth having.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neil Clarke is the editor of Clarkesworld Magazine, owner of Wyrm Publishing and a 2013 Hugo Nominee for Best Editor (short form). He currently lives in NJ with his wife and two children.
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Eric Francis wrote on August 3rd, 2010 at 10:48 am:
This is, indeed, a conversation worth having. Aside from a quibble over your categorization of newspapers as a subset of magazines (saith the long-time newspaper journo), I have another question I think needs to be injected into this debate:
Does it matter?
Seriously. Are there consequences of, say, Clarkesworld being deemed "officially" a magazine vs. a website? Or whether EscapePod is a magazine or an Internet radio program?
For my part, I'm happy to call Clarkesworld (and Slate, et al.) a magazine and leave it at that. But perhaps there could be serious issues that revolve around the answer to my question. Taxation, for one - if you pay to get an online publication, is the publisher liable to remit the same taxes a print magazine from the same state would? I don't know, and I'm curious if someone else does.
I'm really looking forward to hearing more of this debate. Excellent column, Neil!
Neil Clarke wrote on August 3rd, 2010 at 12:00 pm:
Tax laws apply to everyone. We'll never have to worry about the taxman considering online magazines anything less than their print brothers and sisters.
Feel free to quibble away. I'd love to see a definition that clears up what separates a newspaper from a magazine. Personally, I think there is something of a time-sensitive nature to a newspaper. It switches from news to history with time, but the same could be said for trade magazines, so I toss my hands up in the air.
Of course I'll say being a magazine matters, but I'm a little too close to the question. It just seems disrespectful to deny Clarkesworld (or Fantasy or Beneath Ceaseless Skies or Podcastle or....) the right to be called a magazine simply because they aren't paper-based.
Jim Brucker wrote on August 4th, 2010 at 11:22 pm:
I am a librarian at a medical school. We regularly purchase subscriptions to online journal content that is rarely distinguished from print periodicals. A library's mission, though, is to provide persistent and discoverable access to information. This is why there is a slow adoption of anything that breaks from tradition. If blogs and other non-traditional forms of publishing are not archived, then the library won't be able to provide that persistent access. A periodical with an ISSN has a type of permanence (even if it is published solely online). So I think that is, in part, where some of the reasoning is coming from regarding this stipulation of an ISSN.
Meanwhile, a recent trend has been for libraries to purchase back files (PDFs) of journal articles, ensuring both persistent access and escaping the price-gouging of content leasing. This is all from a scientific/medical publishing perspective, though, so the attitude might be different when it comes to literature. I don't think there's anything wrong with a periodical having an ISSN, as it is a standard that would be perfectly applicable to an online publication such as Clarkesworld.
Also, why doesn't Apple's bookstore accept an ISSN? It is silly to demand an individual ISBN for each issue (if that's what they are doing).
That said, you're right about all of this changing. In scientific literature, a new model of a living, adapting article is emerging. Instead of offering up a single article as a snapshot of research, we are seeing publication as an expanding organism, with new data being incorporated into a fluid medium. This is not occurring in the big journals, but it is evolving on its own, from outside of the "old guard." Again, though, there is the issue of ensuring persistence. I'm not certain that this fluid, changing, data-driven mode of publication could be called an "article," and that leads me to wonder if the idea of a "magazine" will also become antiquated. For instance, Clarkesworld has a very regular publication schedule, but it is also open to a continuous stream of comments. This month in particular has generated a great collection of reader comments. Should those be considered part of the content? My comment here is part of a conversation, but is that considered part of this month's content? This is different than "letters to the editor," which are typically compiled and then published later on. This is immediate, so that, after the initial release of an "issue," the ideas continue to evolve. I think this is a particularly wonderful aspect of the break from traditional publishing models.
So maybe this is just an evolution of the "magazine." Maybe all of these terms -- magazine, blog, website -- will coalesce into "content," or some other catch-all. From my librarian perspective, the pressing concern is persistence. The ISSN is an old-school type of URL, a unique identifier. I think that it can still apply to an evolving publication. I just want to make sure that someone will be able to access this content in another 20 years.
Thanks for posting such an interesting topic!
Dan Kimmel wrote on August 5th, 2010 at 7:24 am:
As someone who has done a couple of pieces for Clarkesworld there is no question in my mind that it qualified it is a magazine. A key difference between a blog and a magazine is that the latter has editorial gatekeepers who, if they do their job right, work with the writer to make the finished piece the best it can be. (Cheryl is very good at this, btw.) A blog, even by an established writer, is a different beast. It may be entertaining and well-written, but it is more like a public diary than a magazine with an editorial point of view.
To the bloggers I note that that doesn't make what you do necessarily better or worse. It simply makes it different.
Steven Saus wrote on August 6th, 2010 at 5:42 am:
A very timely and cogent editorial, Neil. I am definitely in the "content" camp - especially with the ease that the content can so easily shift from one format to another. For another example, I believe Apex's magazine has been creating yearly anthologies from the magazine content for a while now.
I'm also hesitant to classify the content based on its subject matter. While it's easy to point at examples like "Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded", the diary-like qualities of blog posts have been collected into books well before blogs were so prevalent. "Bitch" by Elizabeth Wurtzel was published back in 1999, but I could easily imagine it being a blog first had it been published a decade later.
Again, quite pertinent and definitely food for thought. Thanks for writing it!
Tristan wrote on August 7th, 2010 at 1:34 am:
You mentioned taxation briefly. Do you actually gain or lose anything tangible by calling yourself a magazine? It's possible that the distinction between a magazine and an anthology (series) just doesn't make sense anymore.