Blogs vs. fanzines

[randy_byers]

Tim Lucas, who publishes the film magazine Video Watchdog, has blogged about whether blogs are killing print magazines. It's interesting to see this discussion happening outside of SF fandom, particularly when his references to fanzines are clearly to non-fannish fanzines (i.e., movie fanzines). Even so, some of the comments apply across the border as well: "Michael Weldon is blaming rising costs of paper, postage and gas for PSYCHOTRONIC going under, but surely irregularity of publication was also a factor; after his first issue was published in 1989, he produced only 40 more after nearly 18 years in business. That's an average of slightly more than two issues per year, which is a good rate for a fanzine, but hardly a frequency that can sustain a business or a living."

Or perhaps even moreso: "Blogging has certainly made me more attentive to what other bloggers are doing and the Blog-A-Thons that sometimes occur are a testimonial to the proposal that, to some extent, bloggers are writing for each other -- not unlike the days when people would start a fanzine for the sole purpose of trading with another fanzine publishers."

An interesting parallax view from a different fandom.

Comments

Here's the sad part...

[johnnyeponymous.livejournal.com]

Psychotronic has been going downhill for ages, but Video Watchdog got really good about three years ago.

There's an LV area fan who's involved with both to a degree. He seemed to think that neither would survive another year or two
Chris

Re: Here's the sad part...

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I have to confess that I've never read either magazine, but I'm familiar with Lucas from the Mobius Home Video Forum and from his commentaries on Mario Bava DVDs (and now his blog, which I only read sporadically). One of the interesting things about this post is his admission that blogging is addictive enough to pull his attention away from the magazine. But it sounds like he and his wife rely on the magazine for a living, so he can't give it up.