Subject matters of interest generally attract newsstand magazines to support them. The range of publications that one can find on the shelves these days is so diverse that when I look at some of them, I laugh. I see a title and I think, “Surely no one’s going to buy that. Who has an interest in the different shell colours of a snail?”
Firstly, I’d be wrong because retailers don’t give up valuable shelf space to products that don’t sell and secondly, I’d be further surprised when I discovered the sales figures for some of these obscure publications.
Which makes it all the more remarkable when one considers the phenomenal fascination that still exists for UFOs, that the range of dedicated magazines available to interested readers is so sparse. In the UK there is nothing. In the States there is UFO Magazine and in South America, a Brazilian equivalent. Fate Magazine contributes but is primarily based in the paranormal. And that’s about it. If I’ve left any out, then my apologies.
So why should this be? The logical conclusion is that the market won’t support any more because there isn’t the demand, but this is in conflict with clear public interest. The Internet and the level of Freedom of Information Act requests and newspaper articles and films all indicate otherwise. It is true that statistics show that the Internet has hit the sales of so called niche magazines, but I don’t believe this is the whole answer.
I think the key lies in a number of subtly different directions. While the subject still enthrals the public as a whole, there haven’t been any major recent new cases that have captured the imagination. So when Dennis Kucinich is asked about UFOs in a national televised political debate, there is certainly a spark and a media response but this is in reaction to the concept and a particular personality as opposed to a specific occurrence. Old style UFO publications relied upon attention grabbing sightings, accounts of shadowy men knocking on your front door and wild tales of face to face contact and abductions. Those days seem to have gone. People are still seeing plenty of odd things in the skies above but for the moment at least, that’s where these objects have chosen to stay.
Culturally, UFOs are still very much with us. Adverts are still adorned with them and on TV, alien based shows are staple features. The Star Trek franchise has ceased and Stargate SG1 is gone but Atlantis continues, as does Battlestar Gallactica, to much acclaim. Invasion didn’t do so well and was cancelled and the film of the same name bombed. YouTube however is awash with UFO videos and they attract big numbers. And most bizarrely of all, UFO’s have featured prominently in the US presidential debate. Go figure.
So topically, they still have a foothold in the public imagination and yet magazines about them aren’t exactly thick on the ground. Why? Perhaps the public aren’t being served up with what they want.
In the meantime, NASA has been patiently ploughing its furrow. The space programme has continued to prosper and either the shuttle or the space station are rarely out of the news. The Mars Phoenix Lander was launched in August and when it gets to the red planet in May, it will search for microbial life on our planetary next door neighbour, and will probably find some. I’d be amazed if it didn’t. Recently, President Bush revealed plans to send a manned mission to the Moon and then on to Mars, an announcement that caused a great deal of excitement and debate.
And the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI, has also recently been making the headlines because of a row over whether they should become proactive and start sending out signals to possible areas of habitation in the Universe instead of just sitting back and waiting for them to reach us. There has been much huffing and puffing and a couple of high profile resignations but potentially, this is quite a serious issue.
So the emphasis is possibly shifting slightly and UFOs are having to share the limelight a bit more with the scientific pursuit of extraterrestrial life. You might think the two are synonymous, but they aren’t, and therein is the key. The solution to what UFOs are doesn’t lie in one direction. They are a combination of things that range from natural phenomena to hoaxes to secret projects to misperceptions to the paranormal to possibly extraterrestrial craft. There is a dichotomy for many people who believe that intelligent life exists elsewhere but that no way could it ever have visited here. And there are UFO proponents who have no real interest in extraterrestrial life and are more concerned with proving conspiracies and cover ups or following other agendas.
But for those people who have a genuine curiosity about the existence of extraterrestrial life, whether it be via flying saucers or through microscopic germs on another planet, or both, and who don’t have degrees in science to help them through the academic texts, then these people are currently bereft. There is nothing for them in print that reflects these combined areas of interest, until now.
I edited and published an ezine on the web for a few years called UFO Review. It was a successful and popular magazine, but I wanted to expand the concept of what I was doing and carry it forward. I wanted to acknowledge the shift in public interest and reflect it in a more modern and realistic approach. I wanted to go into print and I wanted to do it with a magazine that wasn’t just about one strand of the subject. I wanted to embrace the whole area of extraterrestrial life and combine previously diverse subjects such as UFOs, SETI, and astrobiology all under one banner. And I wanted to make it accessible to everyone so that you didn’t need to be a scientist to understand it.
And as much as I enjoyed and still love old style UFO magazines, I think in this day and age it is a bit pointless to still be going over 40 year old cases or attempting to analyse one more doubtful photograph or reviving yet another abduction case. With the deepest respect to the people involved in these incidents, they have all been recounted many times. We really need to move forward.
Out of this thinking came Alien Worlds magazine.
The underlying point about my new publication is to look forward. That doesn’t mean ignoring the past or never mentioning it - far from it. I’m still in love with UFOs and my personal interests stretch into all the areas of their possibilities, but my primary curiosity is about the search for, and discovery of, extraterrestrial life. I want to know about the company we keep in the Universe. I want to know who and where they are, and everything else I can about them. The significance of such a discovery will become unquestionably Mankind’s greatest achievement and the pursuit of that discovery is what Alien Worlds magazine is about.
If you are struck with the same dream, then you can find out more about Alien Worlds magazine at http://www.alienworldsmag.com
Firstly, I’d be wrong because retailers don’t give up valuable shelf space to products that don’t sell and secondly, I’d be further surprised when I discovered the sales figures for some of these obscure publications.
Which makes it all the more remarkable when one considers the phenomenal fascination that still exists for UFOs, that the range of dedicated magazines available to interested readers is so sparse. In the UK there is nothing. In the States there is UFO Magazine and in South America, a Brazilian equivalent. Fate Magazine contributes but is primarily based in the paranormal. And that’s about it. If I’ve left any out, then my apologies.
So why should this be? The logical conclusion is that the market won’t support any more because there isn’t the demand, but this is in conflict with clear public interest. The Internet and the level of Freedom of Information Act requests and newspaper articles and films all indicate otherwise. It is true that statistics show that the Internet has hit the sales of so called niche magazines, but I don’t believe this is the whole answer.
I think the key lies in a number of subtly different directions. While the subject still enthrals the public as a whole, there haven’t been any major recent new cases that have captured the imagination. So when Dennis Kucinich is asked about UFOs in a national televised political debate, there is certainly a spark and a media response but this is in reaction to the concept and a particular personality as opposed to a specific occurrence. Old style UFO publications relied upon attention grabbing sightings, accounts of shadowy men knocking on your front door and wild tales of face to face contact and abductions. Those days seem to have gone. People are still seeing plenty of odd things in the skies above but for the moment at least, that’s where these objects have chosen to stay.
Culturally, UFOs are still very much with us. Adverts are still adorned with them and on TV, alien based shows are staple features. The Star Trek franchise has ceased and Stargate SG1 is gone but Atlantis continues, as does Battlestar Gallactica, to much acclaim. Invasion didn’t do so well and was cancelled and the film of the same name bombed. YouTube however is awash with UFO videos and they attract big numbers. And most bizarrely of all, UFO’s have featured prominently in the US presidential debate. Go figure.
So topically, they still have a foothold in the public imagination and yet magazines about them aren’t exactly thick on the ground. Why? Perhaps the public aren’t being served up with what they want.
In the meantime, NASA has been patiently ploughing its furrow. The space programme has continued to prosper and either the shuttle or the space station are rarely out of the news. The Mars Phoenix Lander was launched in August and when it gets to the red planet in May, it will search for microbial life on our planetary next door neighbour, and will probably find some. I’d be amazed if it didn’t. Recently, President Bush revealed plans to send a manned mission to the Moon and then on to Mars, an announcement that caused a great deal of excitement and debate.
And the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, SETI, has also recently been making the headlines because of a row over whether they should become proactive and start sending out signals to possible areas of habitation in the Universe instead of just sitting back and waiting for them to reach us. There has been much huffing and puffing and a couple of high profile resignations but potentially, this is quite a serious issue.
So the emphasis is possibly shifting slightly and UFOs are having to share the limelight a bit more with the scientific pursuit of extraterrestrial life. You might think the two are synonymous, but they aren’t, and therein is the key. The solution to what UFOs are doesn’t lie in one direction. They are a combination of things that range from natural phenomena to hoaxes to secret projects to misperceptions to the paranormal to possibly extraterrestrial craft. There is a dichotomy for many people who believe that intelligent life exists elsewhere but that no way could it ever have visited here. And there are UFO proponents who have no real interest in extraterrestrial life and are more concerned with proving conspiracies and cover ups or following other agendas.
But for those people who have a genuine curiosity about the existence of extraterrestrial life, whether it be via flying saucers or through microscopic germs on another planet, or both, and who don’t have degrees in science to help them through the academic texts, then these people are currently bereft. There is nothing for them in print that reflects these combined areas of interest, until now.
I edited and published an ezine on the web for a few years called UFO Review. It was a successful and popular magazine, but I wanted to expand the concept of what I was doing and carry it forward. I wanted to acknowledge the shift in public interest and reflect it in a more modern and realistic approach. I wanted to go into print and I wanted to do it with a magazine that wasn’t just about one strand of the subject. I wanted to embrace the whole area of extraterrestrial life and combine previously diverse subjects such as UFOs, SETI, and astrobiology all under one banner. And I wanted to make it accessible to everyone so that you didn’t need to be a scientist to understand it.
And as much as I enjoyed and still love old style UFO magazines, I think in this day and age it is a bit pointless to still be going over 40 year old cases or attempting to analyse one more doubtful photograph or reviving yet another abduction case. With the deepest respect to the people involved in these incidents, they have all been recounted many times. We really need to move forward.
Out of this thinking came Alien Worlds magazine.
The underlying point about my new publication is to look forward. That doesn’t mean ignoring the past or never mentioning it - far from it. I’m still in love with UFOs and my personal interests stretch into all the areas of their possibilities, but my primary curiosity is about the search for, and discovery of, extraterrestrial life. I want to know about the company we keep in the Universe. I want to know who and where they are, and everything else I can about them. The significance of such a discovery will become unquestionably Mankind’s greatest achievement and the pursuit of that discovery is what Alien Worlds magazine is about.
If you are struck with the same dream, then you can find out more about Alien Worlds magazine at http://www.alienworldsmag.com
