I Heard the News Today, Oh Boy

One of the saddest things in the publishing world to hear or read about is when a magazine states "we are no longer publishing". 

Now, hearing this today shouldn't be a surprise. If you've been paying attention, print media has endured a slow but definite decline for the last thirty years. There are still holdouts and some popular ones continue to make the also-decreasing spots on retail shelves. But to survive, magazines now have gotten expensive, which further reduces their appeal to customers. 

Still, you always hope print will find a way to survive. There's nothing like having a tangible document in hand. I still believe in paper (and yes I like "The Office" but no, that's not the reason I say that). I believe in the sanctity of the printed word. That's not to say everything in print is correct; newspapers and books are made by humans and humans are notoriously bad at being accurate and impartial (especially today), but the good ones (David Halberstam, Bernard Fall, Anne Applebaum, to name a few) make stuff that's meaningful and stands the test of time. When a great work is in print, it can live many lifetimes if cared for properly. It's lasting and its words keep their value, faults and all, because they can't be changed. 

This is important because it makes the barrier of entry in print media much higher than that in digital media, which can be run by children (NOT bashing on all kids here, but immaturity and the lack of wisdom will put them at a serious disadvantage when writing). Digital media can be edited rapidly, which means corrections can be made quickly, but so can lies. In print, editors are often involved to help fact check and enforce grammatical standards and so the floor seems to me to be a bit higher in print than in digital. 

All this to say that today I got an email from my editor at Aviation History magazine. The publisher decided to cease operations, effectively canceling the magazine. The first concern I have is to the editors and staff who put the magazine together. I thank them for their hard work and wish them the best in their search for the next opportunity. But I too also lose a market. I'd freelanced flight simulation reviews for the magazine for...my goodness, it's been more than thirty years!

I first approached the magazine back in perhaps 1992, when I was just getting started as a freelance writer. The editor at the time was Arthur Sanfelici. He gave me a shot and endured my rookie mistakes. He eventually retired and Carl von Wodtke took over. Only a year or so ago Carl retired and Tom Huntington took the reins. My god that makes me feel old. I survived three editors. Poor Tom came in just in time to see the thing fall apart. The publishers even decided to release the magazine's last issue only as a PDF and not in print. I think that's a telling sign it was over. 

It's a sad day, as Aviation History and its sister history magazines were great reads. The HistoryNet website is still up at this time and oddly still selling subscriptions, but my last active freelance market has died. 

I feel like I've been saying goodbye a lot, but here it goes again. Goodbye Aviation History, and thanks for all the good times. You started out as one of my smaller markets and one I didn't think was that big a deal, but you ended up being my strongest and longest lasting one.