Beloved science fiction magazine Omni is rebooting from its reboot. The new, quarterly edition of Omni has quietly launched, after being announced over the summer. It’s the first new print issue since the 1990s, and the second attempt to revive the Omni name, after a confusing legal fight over an unrelated predecessor called Omni Reboot. Like the original Omni, it publishes a mix of fiction and nonfiction futurism: the first issue includes coverage of a space ark project and stories from Nancy Kress, Maureen McHugh, and Rich Larson.
Omni magazine is officially back in print
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
Omni is being published by Penthouse Global Media, which returns it to its original home; the magazine was created by Penthouse publishers Bob Guccione and Kathy Keeton, who ran it in print from 1978 to 1995, and online until 1998. Its ownership remained murky until 2013, when a company called Jerrick Media — which had acquired Omni archival material from Guccione’s estate — launched Omni Reboot with writer and musician Claire Evans as its editor-in-chief.
Evans left Omni Reboot in 2014, however, and the site drifted for years, dogged by criticism of its treatment of writers. Former (and now current) Omni editor Pamela Weintraub eventually reregistered the magazine’s trademark, and Penthouse sued Jerrick Media for copyright and trademark infringement in a larger battle over the rights to Guccione’s estate. Omni Reboot’s web address now directs to a similar-sounding Jerrick Media venture called Futurism, although Jerrick is still listed as the publisher of Omni back issues for sale on Amazon’s Kindle Store.
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