A SLICK NEW SCIENCE MAGAZINE THAT COULD TURN IT ALL AROUND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000200890002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: October 18, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/30: CIA-RDP90-00845R000200890002-7
THE WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN LINE)
18 October 1978
STAT
it, all around
'un'
By Ron Pael . { Kendig's background fits Guccione's artist/
sew ton* wi.niw" star scientist concept like a space shuttle fits its dock-
ing platform. His education combines degrees in
Over the past few weeks, a million'' mathematics and fine arts. -
copies of a" new magazine called Omni. Kendig, in Washington last week, talked about
have been bought from magazine racks , the magazine, its goals and his ideas for it. He is
in supermarkets, drug stores, bookstores,- 37, and wears the beard of an intellectual.
and just. about everywhere magazines - He said the magazine is going to be about two-
are sold. thirds science fact and one-third science fiction:
The magazine is slick. The people who.,,. "When I first heard about the project," he
paid $2 for it bought it, not to read about' said, referring to Guccione's existing magazines,
sex, movie stars or how to decorate their .;; "I laughingly referred to it as a stroke book with-
homes, but to read about science. The .'i out women. But when I thought about that, it's
advertising is reported to be a first-issue .i not a bad way to design a magazine.. - ?. S
record in the magazine publishing indus- ' "To have two or three major pictorials every
try; over a half million dollars. issue, the same way Penthouse runs girl sets, is
Slickness. and science are parts of a very effective.
formula developed by Bob Guccione, who "One of the great appeals here is the material
owns the Penthouse, Viva and Forum is very visual, both in science and science fiction.
1: magazine empire. He is also a man with In fact, the science fiction illustrations have as
fascination for the frontiers 'of knowl- much draw as the story. Scientific material is
edge, and he calls himself an artist, who, normally very difficult to understand. Is one
in a way, is seeking the same goals as the thing to talk about DNA, but if you can see a
r objective scientist - "an absolute knowl- piece of it in color .... "
edge of our own special sense of reality." ' The magazine's advertising and circulation
The magazine is his compromise be-' people place their prospective readers in the 18-
35 year age category. Kendig said his own feel-'
tween the subjective world of the artist, ing. though, is the demographics of Omni readers'
and the objective world of the scientist. will break more by interest in the material.
;, The sell out of the first issue is a trib-. ' whether they be 35 or 80.-.
ute to Guccione's knowledge of the The difficulty of understanding new scientific
business world, and to the power of a $3 material is one of the problems Kendig hopes to
million advertising campaign. And to conquer with the new magazine. And, he said,
some of the material and authors in the one of the things that will make Omni different is
first issue, which included a gallery of it will be a mass circulation magazine which
photos by Roman Vishniac, the dean of covers science "across the board."
photomicrography; Altop Blakeslee, As, "I don't think there is another magazine posi-
sociated Press science writer since 1946, tioned this way," he-said. "Scientific American
writing on the efforts of astronomers to isn't really a popular magazine, despite the fact
pick up intelligent signals from outer that they portray themselves this way. No one
space; and fiction by Isaac Asimov, who can read it through. If anyone tells you they can,;!
has his 200th book coming out in Febru- 'they're kidding you."
ary. "'Scientific. American is very old," Kendig ex-
Guccione is editor and design director planed. "When it was first published in the 19th
of the magazine. He is also very busy ! century, there was a character called the 'scien-with his "empire," more new magazines tific American' they thought existed. Their idea
(an all-science fiction magazine and at the time; in the 1890s, I think, was that if you
another on business and technology,) and were a science buff, you could read what was
going on and make some sense of it.
movies.
an in charge - ',WHEN THE MATERIAL became more corn- !,
h
i
e
e m
t
tor,
d
As executive
of the "editorial package," Guccione
hired Frank Kendig, author, former
managing director of "Saturday Review
of the Sciences," editor of "Science Di-
gest ~B" and oo Books. He calls himself a writer who
also edits. . .. .
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2
plicated, they tried to hold onto their idea of the
'scientific American.. but there stopped being.
such a person.
"It seems to me the public is cheated by that.
The public has its science news made for it; told
that it's news now, though the science has been
going on for awhile.
"From this sense of conservatism, overcau-
tion, science as a whole becomes like the AMA, a
governing body of itself, which I don't think is
good.
Kendig said Omni will be cautious with what it
prints, "but will not wait until some other organ
first justifies what we do."
"The key words for us are science, science fic-
tion and future;" he said, "almost every story,
has some kind of future twist to it, and we go to
great efforts to get the scientists to speculate
what their work will lead us to in five. 10 years,
or into the next century."
Kendig's plan is to get involved with a network
of scientists. An exercise that has become a lot
easier, he said.
"I have a computer, terminal in my office,"
Kendig said, "and can get into an enormous num-
ber of data banks for scientific information. For,
example, I can run a man's name through the'
computer and find out all his work.'
'..With his
computer, Kendig no longer has to wait for the
publication of an article in a professional journal
to find out what's going on.
KENDIG PREDICTS "if you have a television
set now, I can almost guarantee, in five years,
you'll have a computer."
Kendig plans to use both scientists who write,
and non-scientific writers for Omni. "I'm hop-i
ing," he said, "that we will have people like Julia
Child, for example, writing on the future of home
cuisine."'
The magazine's regular features cover earth,
space, life (biomedicine), astronomy, science in
the arts which covers films and books,. inter-
views, articles on everything from test-tube
babies to UFOs, a section of scientific "shorts"
which covers the latest news in the many areas of
science, and fiction.
In the next issue, which wilF be on newsstands
in a few weeks, Guccione interviews,futurist
Alvin Toffler...
In that interview, Toffler discusses the prob.
'lems arising from citizens being unable to under-li
stand the advanced technology that surrounds us.
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