OMNI was a science and science fiction magazine published in the US and the UK. 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.
OMNI was launched by Kathy Keeton, long-time companion and later wife of Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione, who described the magazine in its first issue as “an original if not controversial mixture of science fact, fiction, fantasy and the paranormal.”
Every issue of this great magazine is now online. Some of the best science fiction writers wrote for it.
I guess people lost interest.
No, the Internet was killing Penthouse, so Guccione couldn’t fund it anymore.
…..meaning there wasn’t enough interest to begin with?
Hard to create a magazine with enough stories EACH ISSUE to make a subscription worth it—just like long playing albums==destroyed by per song selection.
Penthouse simply sucked. It felt like a woman’s version of a pornographic magazine with all the lace, fuzzy lensing, romantic crap and tap dancing around all the sex.
There’s a reason Hustler still is being published. Men like their sex raw.
well the magazine started out good, but by the 90’s it was Ancient Aliens v0.99
oMNI
dISCOVER
heavy metal..
2600 when I could find it..
Well, never found 2600, but I definitely read the other three. Heavy Metal was kept behind the counter at most places… So I had to find clerks who didn’t check ID’s.
OMNI killed itself…
they had published several articles as fact without checking deeply enough into them…
big oopsers for a science mag..
Exactly, people got tired of reading BS, like the U.N., W.H.O. and the Nobel asshats.
The 80’s Omni were as good as it got. Wired was hip and won. I also miss Trouser Press.
Loved OMNI. Had a subscription when I was in grade school. Then graduated to Mondo 2000. Both were great mags – too bad all we’re left with now is Wired.
Great find!
I’ve been looking for some good science fiction reads.
I still have the first issue somewhere in the garage. One of the later highlights was the Omni IQ test issue. Since it was pre-Internet it wasn’t cheat worthy. it still showed about 10 points less than the one I took in grade school but I chalked that up to all the alcohol.
I got out of them when the adverts out numbered the articles..and when Omni was repeating Everything from the past.
Even comics had gotten bad, then a few NEW formats came out like Darkhorse, and prices went thru the roof, but you got a GOOD comic.
The FUN point in some of this, is that if you Subscribed you could save over 50% on the Shelf price. which taught me economics.
“an original if not controversial mixture of science fact, fiction, fantasy and the paranormal.”
Readers will get that for free from the Internet by the mid-1990s. Discover Magazine ceased it’s print edition around that time, I believe.
Also, maybe a decrease of interest in “pop psychology”with the increased availability of psychiatric drugs.
PDFs are poorly scanned, anyone know anything about Epub , Daisy, or DjView?
I loved reading it. Really stimulated my imagination.