Submission + - Omni Magazine to Reboot
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Adi Robertson reports in The Verge that classic science fiction magazine Omni, created in 1978 by Penthouse mogul Bob Guccione and partner Kathy Keeton, is coming back — and with it, questions about how our vision of science and science fiction has changed since Omni closed up shop in 1996. "There’s a heavy dose of nostalgia in the proceedings, and it’s not just about bringing back an old name," writes Robertson. "Longtime editor Ben Bova has described Omni as 'a magazine about the future,' but since his time as editor, our vision of the future has been tarnished — or, at the very least, we’ve started looking at the predictions of the past with rose-tinted glasses." Omni’s resurrection comes courtesy of Jeremy Frommer, a collector and businessman who acquired Guccione’s archives earlier this year. Like the original magazine, now available at the internet archive, the new Omni will publish a mixture of new fiction and nonfiction publishing the old illustrations that helped define Omni alongside the stories. Longtime science writer Claire Evans will edit the new online project described as an “Omni reboot" but plans to jettison one of the magazine’s most dated elements — a fondness for extraterrestrials and conspiracy theories. "Omni always had a distressing new agey tinge to it," says Bruce Sterling. "There was a lot of ‘aircraft of the pharaohs’ rubbish going on, which I didn't have very much tolerance for."
