oldcharliebrown

I've been following the Hugo Award semiprozine discussion with some interest, and there are now two proposals on the table for redefining the category. One would make every magazine either fanzine or semipro (including The Big Three), which is just a poorly-thought out approach, I fear. The other proposal comes from a committee that has been working on it for two years. The report would basically make Lightspeed and Fantasy professional magazines because they are owned by Prime, which is my full-time job. Of all the options, this seems to be likely the one that makes the most sense, if the category has to be redefined.

However, there is a wildcard on the table. Ben Yalow has submitted a minority report—meaning he couldn't convince the committee to go along with it—that would effectively gut the category of the majority of people who received any significant number of nominations last year. He wants to eliminate any magazine that pays "pro" rates, even if their staff is unpaid. It is a move that would leave the category in shambles (as can be seen at the bottom of this post) , and a strange move at that, though perhaps not considering that Ben is the one who initially tried to abolish it in the first place. I worry that this appears to be yet another attempt to do so. In light of this, if you could come to the Thursday / Friday business meetings at Reno, and put in your two cents, and vote, it might be really helpful to avoid another attempt at eliminating this category.