Special issues.

The special issue, by definition, is a rare and distinctive publication. But in art magazines, as in many cultural periodicals, the special issue is becoming more common. Throughout the art press the proportion of special to regular issues is on the increase. In addition, the variety of special issues is expanding from theme and anniversary issues, to seasonal and regional guides, to quasi exhibition catalogs and advertising supplements. According to a number of art magazine editors, the proliferation of special issues is driven by two contrary impulses: an art world that is increasingly fragmented and specialized, and a marketplace that demands ever greater "synergy" between editorial content, advertising and publicity.

Nowhere is the special issue more prominent than in the so-called regional art press. Art Papers, the Atlanta-based bimonthly (not to be confused with the late, great Minneapolis-based Artpaper), began producing mostly special issues under the editorship of Glenn Harper in the early 1990s. Harper left in 1995 to become editor of Sculpture Magazine, and his successors, Ruth Resnicow and now Michael Pittari, took his interest in special issues to its logical conclusion: although not identified as such, they have published nothing but special issues. This policy seems to be helping the bottom line, as circulation is up and distribution is expanding across the country.

The New Art Examiner, the feisty Chicago-based monthly edited by Kathryn Hixon, moved toward a special issue-only format about a year ago, and thus far this strategy has likewise proved successful. Similar to Art Papers, the Examiner was founded in the mid-1970s to provide much-needed coverage of a regional art scene. And like Art Papers, in the 1980s the Examiner developed into the unique hybrid that it is today: a national art magazine with a focus on regional artists and institutions. Despite the regular presence of commercial advertising, both magazines continue to receive significant support from various state and city arts councils, and from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). (In fact, they are two of only a handful of visual arts magazines to receive NEA funding after the agency's restructuring in 1995). Art Papers and the Examiner are presumably able to attract public funding because they cover artists who are seldom discussed in more commercial and New York City-based art magazines like Art in America and Artforum. If their review sections and funding sources ground Art Papers and the Examiner in their respective regions, then the special-issue format opens their feature pages to global issues such as feminism, supply-side aesthetics, the future of alternative spaces, youth culture and higher education. Being able to situate themselves within both "the local" and "the global" is, I think, the genius of the new Art Papers and the New Art Examiner.

The success of these two magazines has apparently not gone unnoticed by the publishers of dialogue, the Columbus-based bimonthly that covers Ohio and surrounding states. Last spring they hired a new editor, Meg Galipault, and completely redesigned the magazine (it now looks very much like Art Paper). The July/August issue is a special issue called "On the Road with dialogue," and includes the annual supplement, "Arts Guide to the Region." According to Galipault, each successive issue will focus on a single geographical region.

A special issue can sometimes lead to the formation of a completely new periodical. Such is the case with ArtByte: The Magazine of Digital Arts. The idea for ArtByte emerged in November 1997 from a special supplemental issue of On Paper, the bimonthly art magazine formerly known as Print Collector's Newsletter; (see "New and Improved," Afterimage 24:3, November/December 1996, p. 2). Fanning Publishing Company, the New York City-based publisher of On Paper, launched ArtByte in April 1998 as a glossy, advertising-supported bimonthly that provides "in-depth coverage of all the digital arts - from music to on-line literature, from printmaking to video." Editor Bill Jones has assembled an impressive group of critics, artists and technology experts; the first two issues include important articles by Thomas McEvilley, Erkki Huhtamo, Thyrza Nichols Goodeeve, Russell Keziere and Henry Wilhelm. According to Jones, distribution has already increased from 8000 to 30,000 copies per issue, so the magazine is clearly developing momentum. (Ed. note: For further information, contact ArtByte, 39 E. 78th St., New York, NY 10021.)

Going completely against the trend in special issues is Art Journal, a quarterly publication of the College Art Association (CAA). In the fall of 1997, the CAA editorial board composed a new mission statement for Art Journal, one "designed to move the journal into the twenty-first century," as the May 1998 CAA News put it. Among other things, the new mission discontinues an 18-year policy of publishing only guest-edited, theme issues. The summer 1998 issue is the first to enact the new mission. Replacing the theme-issue format is a well-balanced array of conversations, interviews, feature essays and international reports. Contributors include Doug Ashford, Christine Hill, Faith Wilding and Critical Art Ensemble, Lawrence Rinder and Carol Becker. Interspersed within these texts are copious illustrations, in color and black and white, all arranged with formal precision by new designer Katy Homans. Overall, the issue looks like an exhibition catalog from any institute of contemporary art. But given its publishing context - a quarterly journal of an academic association - the new format and focus of Art Journal is a fairly radical departure.