Paizo Publishing, LLC announced Tuesday, January 18 that it will temporarily suspend publication of its magazine titles Amazing Stories and Undefeated. Paizo reports that the break will be used to explore unique opportunities to revamp and reposition each magazine.

"We remain quite proud of these titles, and are presently considering a number of options that should provide a long and exciting future for both magazines,” says Lisa Stevens, co-owner and CEO of Paizo Publishing. “Both Amazing Stories and Undefeated are doing well in their respective niches; nevertheless, we believe that they could be even more successful. We certainly value the support our subscribers and regular readers have shown to Amazing Stories and Undefeated, and we hope that this hiatus will be brief."

Amazing Stories #608 went on sale January 4, with Undefeated scheduled to reach newsstands on January 18. These will be the last regular issues printed prior to the hiatus. At this time subscriptions are not automatically being canceled or transferred to other titles. Subscribers wishing to cancel their subscriptions can contact Paizo Publishing at customer.service@paizo.com.

Subscribers and visitors to the Paizo e-commerce store may be able to obtain an e-copy of Amazing Stories #609 in early February.

Paizo's other titles, Dragon and Dungeon, are presently unaffected.

The Amazing Stories name was first used in 1926. Hugo Gernsback created the magazine, which was the first publication devoted to the science fiction genre. Its letter column (copied by its competitors) was largely responsible for the start of science Fiction Fandom. It continued publication until 1995.

Since that time, the name plate has been revived several times. This Amazing Stories was launched only 6 months ago.

Posted January 19, 2005