The End of Amazon’s Kindle Periodicals May Be the Death Knell for an Already Struggling Industry

In the August issue of Fantasy Magazine, the publication announced it would be closing its doors and that the October issue would be its last. While this was partially because the publication “never reached a point of paying for itself,” it was also because Amazon Kindle is ending its periodical section—a move that does not bode well for the future of newspapers and literary magazines, two industries that are already struggling to make ends meet.

RIP Kindle Periodicals

For years, Kindle Periodicals was how newspapers and literary magazines reached their readers in an increasingly competitive digital sphere. With the rise of the digital age, many print mediums have struggled to adapt and find new ways to reach readers.

The problem is that many of these tech corporations are now considering these publications unworthy of support.

Amazon announced in March that it would be ending Kindle Periodicals, a move that directly undermines many magazines that depended on the traffic they provided. Coincidentally, some publications like Clarksworld have been invited to join the Kindle Unlimited program which appears to be Amazon’s replacement for the periodicals, combining eBooks, Audible books, and some magazine subscriptions into a single service. Of course, this service appears to only be reaching out to some of the most notable literary magazines, leaving smaller ones like Fantasy Magazine in the dust.

The trials and tribulations of literary magazines

Honestly, this is only the most recent news to illustrate how hard it is to be a literary magazine in the modern world.

Literary magazines have been on the decline for years, partially due to decreased funding for the arts, but also because of a shift in perception thanks to the Internet. Nowadays, anyone can publish online for free, which makes it harder to get readers to pay for a service that they don’t have to pay for elsewhere.

This reflects the devaluation of writers that we are seeing in Hollywood today. Writers and their work are not being given the support they deserve.

This also isn’t the first time Amazon has pulled moves like this. The company closed the U.K. Book Depository earlier this year, after acquiring the competitor in 2011. They’ve also punished authors whose work has been pirated, weaponizing exclusivity clauses to their advantage.

I understand that sometimes artistic mediums die; for example, the pulp novel was killed by WWII paper shortages, the comic book industry, and the rise of television. However, seeing an entire medium be cut off at the knees by a company like Amazon does feel less like the natural end of a medium and more like an art form being killed by corporate greed and apathy for the arts.

The best way to fight Amazon is thankfully to go to the source and support these publications directly while they still remain. There are also alternate eReaders for those who find that Kindle isn’t igniting their imaginations anymore.

(featured image: @felipepelaquim on Unsplash)