The magazine Ellery Queen has been in publishing since 1941. The over seventy year old publication was originally launched by Lawrence E. Spivak from Mercury Press. The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, as it is called today, is a monthly magazine. The magazine gets its rather distinguished name from the two-cousin writing team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee who penned their stories under the pseudonymous ‘Ellery Queen’. Dannay served as Editor-in-Chief from 1941 till he died in 1982; from where Eleanor Sullivan took charge till 1991. From 1991 till date, it remains under the editorship of Janet Hutchings.
The manifesto for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine as given by Dannay is, “raise the sights of mystery writers generally to a genuine literary form, encourage good writing among our colleagues by offering a practical market not otherwise available, develop new writers seeking expression in the genre.”
To stay true to his manifesto, Dannay set about finding the most intriguing stories containing elements of crime or mystery, written by both past and present famous literary figures. Around forty Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners were absorbed into the mystery magazine including: Rudyard Kipling, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, and Alice Walker. Eminent names like Nancy Pickard, Harry Kemelman and Jack Finney started off their mystery writing careers in Ellery Queen.
An Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine subscription maintains its tradition of literary excellence, with its top-notch crime and detective stories continuing to intrigue today’s readers as well. This magazine has won many several awards of recognition since its beginning and is regarded as America’s oldest and most notable crime-fiction publication.
Many writers have contributed to the collection, churning successful crime stories covering a range of genres including: cozy to the hardboiled; historical to the contemporary; police procedurals; psychological suspense; P.I. stories; impossible-crime tales; locked-room; classical whodunits; and the quintessential urban noir. The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine also published novels and short stories using a fictional detective named “Ellery Queen”.
The magazine’s success was more like a roller coaster. Its popularity peaked when it started, and slowly lost its glory in between. It is now gaining readership again gradually due to its online presence. The captive audience has grown to 30,000, thanks to its endurance and the belief held by its editor Janet Hutching who is certain that Ellery Queen Mystery e-magazine is going through a rebirth; something that every evolving publication undergoes.
Most magazines have been suffering from diminished readership in the last few years. Factors such as availability of the magazine for circulation, extent of circulation, increased publishing costs, constant locomotion of customers, and many other minute details have affected the distribution of physical magazines. Publishers are now realizing the importance of digital publishing and often make the switch fully aware of the positives and negatives: seeing as the positives seem to outweigh the negatives. The reach of a digital magazine is worldwide as compared to the demographic constrictions of print. With the presence of many apps readily available online digital publishing has never been easier. With a click of a button, millions of readers have access to a magazine in different parts of the world, on any smart device through the internet. Most of the apps that host these publications are offered on mobile devices to download for free to consumers, making it the most conducive platform for publishing.
As global warming impacts us, it is but necessary to join the go-green revolution and make the switch to something greener. The switch to go digital; our small part in the struggle to reduce global warming.