, Ed Meskys, and Dave Vanderwerf founded Locus in 1968 as a news fanzine to promote the bid to host the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Originally intended to run only until the site-selection vote was taken at St. Louiscon, the 1969 Worldcon in St. Louis, Missouri, Brown decided to continue publishing Locus as a mimeographed general science fiction and fantasy newszine. Locus succeeded the monthly newszine Science Fiction Times, when SFT ceased publication in 1970. Brown directed Locus as publisher and editor-in-chief for more than 40 years, from 1968 until his death at age 72 in July 2009. Locus announced that the magazine would continue operations, with then executive editor Liza Groen Trombi succeeding Brown as editor-in-chief in 2009. The magazine is now owned by the Locus Science Fiction Foundation, a 501 tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation. Locus publishes:
News about the science fiction, fantasy, and horror publishing field—stories about publishers, awards, and conferences—including "The Data File", "People & Publishing", and obituaries
Interviews with well-known and up-and-coming writers, usually two per issue
Reviews of new and forthcoming books, usually 20–25 per issue, by notable SF critics including Gary K. Wolfe, Faren Miller, Nick Gevers, Jonathan Strahan, Adrienne Martini, Russell Letson, Gwenda Bond, Stefan Dziemanowicz, Carolyn Cushman, Karen Burnham, and Richard Lupoff plus short fiction reviews by Gardner Dozois and Rich Horton
Locus has won many Hugo Awards, first the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine, and then in 1984 when the new category "Best Semiprozine" was established., Locus won the award for "Best Fanzine" eight times and for "Best Semiprozine" 22 times during the category's first 29 years. In 2012 "Best Semiprozine" was redefined to exclude all small, independent genre magazines as "professional publications" if they had either " provided at least a quarter the income of any one person or, was owned or published by any entity which provided at least a quarter the income of any of its staff and/or owner."; this included Locus. There is no longer a "Professional Magazine" Hugo Award; that original category was replaced in 1973 by the current "Best Editor."
''Locus Online''
Locus Online is the online component of Locus Magazine. It publishes news briefs related to the science fiction, fantasy and horror publishing world, along with original reviews and feature articles, and excerpts of articles that appeared in the print edition. Information for Locus Online is compiled and edited by Mark R. Kelly. In 2002, Locus Online won the first Hugo Award for Best Web Site. It was nominated again in 2005. In January 2016, longtime short-fiction reviewer Lois Tilton announced her resignation. She wrote, "Without consulting or informing me, they had begun deleting material they considered negative from my reviews. To me, this is censorship and completely unacceptable." It was later clarified that the edits were queried by Locus for an as-yet unpublished review, causing Tilton to resign as she felt any editing of her columns was "censorship and completely unacceptable." None of her past columns had been changed, she was paid for the unpublished review, and the relationship ended amicably.
