Must Read Magazines – the publisher of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and Fantasy and Science Fiction – announced on April 22 that they are switching to a new printing company.
In an email sent to subscribers, the company said:
“Due to declining print quality and unacceptable delays with our previous partner, we are switching to a new printing company. This transition is causing delays with the March/April and May/June issues, but once our agreement with the new printer is finalized, we’ll be getting these out in quick succession. Thank you so much for your patience and continued support while we make this transition.”
Last year, Must Read Magazines purchased the “big 3” print SF/F magazines along with Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
The most recent print issues of Asimov’s and Analog are from January/February 2026, and the most recent issue of F&SF is from summer 2025 (although it wasn’t published until last fall). Copies of all these issues have been spotted in bookstores, including many Barnes & Nobles. However, looking at the issues it’s easy to see the “print quality” issues referenced in the email, with poorly bound covers featuring awkward wrinkles on the spines and the ink on some pages extremely faded. In particular, the summer 2025 issue of F&SF had multiple printing issues, with some print pages nearly unreadable.
Since acquiring the magazines, Must Read Magazines has also received complaints about the contracts they are offering authors. Numerous authors detailed their frustration with these contracts, including Benjamin C. Kinney, who noted it took him 27 emails to negotiate a contact he would sign.
Multiple authors including P. A. Cornell and Scott Edelman announced they wouldn’t accept the contacts, with Edelman noting that his F&SF contact was bad enough that he refused to sign it despite trying for 54 years to publish a story in the magazine. The main issue people had with the contracts were the clauses related to moral rights, merchandising rights, and the author’s termination of the contract.
“All I hoped was that MRM would look to what every other magazine and anthology publisher in the field has been doing, an industry standard they could have matched with the substitution of a few words I’d originally suggested, but which was found unacceptable.”
Because of this pushback and after negotiations with SFWA, Must Reads Magazines eventually decided to change its contracts. On January 14 of this year, the company announced “they have incorporated versions of SFWA’s recommended changes and additions to the boilerplates for these magazines. However, they have not changed a ‘phrase in the warranties and indemnities paragraph required by their insurance.’”
Since that announcement, I haven’t heard from any new authors who’ve had contract issues with the company (but if anyone has experienced any, drop me a line). Despite that, I’m still blown away that it took nearly a year for Must Read Magazines to accept that the authors pushing back on these contracts were doing so because the contracts simply didn’t meet industry standards.
On a related and very humorous note, late last year Camestros Felapton drafted a new version of the Felapton Towers Contract for Authors. Not saying this contract was created in response to the Must Read Magazines contract fiasco, but definitely check it out.
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