Jump to: navigation, search

New York Times (24/Jan/1992) - Dell Buys Four Noted Fiction Magazines

Details

Links

Article

Dell Buys Four Noted Fiction Magazines

The Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, best known for its hardcover and paperback books, announced yesterday that it would begin publishing four renowned fiction magazines.

The Dell Magazines division acquired the four monthly science-fiction and mystery magazines from Davis Publications Inc. They are Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Terms of the deal for the four magazines were not disclosed.

The new group will form the Dell Magazine Fiction Group. The editorial staff of the four magazines will remain intact and continue to operate in its current offices at 380 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. Dell is assuming all subscription obligations.

The combined monthly circulation for the four magazines is 650,000. They are among the most popular and best established of the science-fiction and mystery short-story publications. Analog, which has been publishing continuously for 62 years, was the first magazine to publish the science fiction of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine has been around for 51 years and has published more than 40 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. The two youngest publications, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, are 36 years old and 16 years old, respectively.

Through its Dell Magazines division, Bantam Doubleday Dell also publishes 36 crossword-puzzle and games periodicals, as well as horoscope magazines. These publications have a combined monthly circulation of 1.7 million. Relationship to Books

Jack Hoeft, president and chief executive of Bantam Doubleday Dell, said the short-story magazines would fit in well with many of the company's other publications, which include mystery and science-fiction books.

Joel Davis, president of Davis Publications, said the four magazines had been sold was part of a financial restructuring of the company to reduce debt. In 1989, Davis closed Sylvia Porter's Personal Finance Magazine, a six-year-old monthly publication. Its remaining publications include Income Opportunities, Designer Home Plans, Architectural Designs and Woodworker.