Another Death for The Writer

But -- in this age of AI -- to keep the spirit alive.

The Writer Magazine is still dead. About a year ago, after a company in the UK bought the publication from the previous owner, plans were made for a relaunch of the print edition. I’ll cut to the chase here: The new ownership’s intentions collided with the reality of printing and shipping a glossy print magazine in the 2020s. They didn’t know, for example, the substantial cost of circulating a magazine to the few newstands that were available to display a magazine for writers.

Combine that problem with the difficulty in selling ads for a print magazine in an increasingly digital world.

I sincerely believe there is a pathway to returning a magazine like The Writer to print and not lose money doing it. But, for sure, it’s going to involve some up-front investment and risk.

Another perceived headwind for a magazine like The Writer is the seepage of artificial intelligence into our lives. People who like to write and who like to read writing produced by other people are increasingly pitted against monster-sized tech companies that are in a trillion dollar race to take over the act of writing.

To illustrate through an example, I’m writing this piece in a program called Calmly Writer. I found the program because of how annoying it’s become to use more standard word processing programs that can’t help themselves when it comes to instantly generating suggested words and edits every two or three keystrokes.

Such AI seepage is becoming more and more blantant. You start writing an email and a pop-up prompt invades the screen offering to help you write it. Which I translate as meaning: “Let me write this for you.”

I’m reminded of an old article I found this past summer in the The Writer magazine archives where an author and writing teacher offered this simple advice to anyone wanting to improve their writing: Take advantage of every time you are writing an email. Put some focus and heart into it. It’s a pocket of opportunity to improve your writing and your thinking.

With that advice in mind, and with the relaunch of The Writer once again put on hold (maybe forever), I’m returning to this Substack with the desire to stay connected with others that share similar feelings about writing and reading. I might change the name of this pub. I don’t fear writing so much as I fear not writing. Especially when there’s some shiny new data farm, slurping up the world’s water and energy supplies, constantly insisting it should let it do it all for me.