The recent history of Publishing

(Illustration - Whatchu mean, what's a zine? "The Evolution of Self-Publishing" Page 19)


Publishing was fast coming into its own during the 70's, with newspapers and books becoming a huge boom market for people to exploit or embrace. The timing of zines in this money hungry industry suited the anti-corporation and anti-capitalist aspect of many people's punk rock beliefs and served as an appropriate medium to spread that message, but it was also great timing for the opportunity and development of technology. Phil Stoneman, author of Fanzines: Their Production, Culture and Future (2001), reiterates my point: "The timing of this movement was also beneficial to self-publishers; photocopiers were more readily available, meaning that once a publication had been created, it had a relatively cheap and accessible means of being reproduced for a potentially considerable audience."

With the birth of the Xerox machine, publishing houses changed dramatically, with not only one publisher receiving manuscript copies but many. (Joni Evans, 2009) This cheap way to multiply documents allowed the amateur publishers to experiment and create within their own ethics, a publication true to punk rock. Along with the fax machine, seamlessly sending copies of manuscripts to and from publishers and the authors, allowed for a huge publishing market to grow within a fast paced, flourishing creative industry.

The format in which these self publishing amateur journalists were creating was fairly unique in comparison to the dynamic of working in the publishing industry with pay. These motivated and inspired individuals began creating written work for the love of the subject matter, and not for the love of money. This attitude was integral to the DIY ethos of the punk community and was a way in which to make a point about the relationship we have with money, relevant in the 1970's and today.

During this era was born the household name, FedEx, originally known as Kinkos. (Tina Grant, 1997) Based in University of California Santa Barbara's campus, with a singular copy machine, students flocked to use the technology for their studies. However, the seed had been planted for creatives all over the world with access to this technology to use it for an entirely different reason. A lack of budget and resources, fuelled with unyielding creativity and art school backgrounds birthed a generation of self-publishers that embraced a home-made DIY aesthetic and ethos.

The age of digitization came in the 1980's, with the first Apple Mac introduced in 1984, with the first desktop publishing application, PageMaker released the following year. This jump in technology did impact the zine and the way in which it's created, however, the DIY ethos remained strong throughout this time period and manifested itself within the aesthetic of the zine culture relevant in punk rock, feminism, queer zines and many more. This is still true today, despite the continuing advancement with technology and design, which I will discuss further into this dissertation. It is this DIY ethic that has allowed the zine to maintain status as an accessible platform for ideals, opinions, reviews, images, texts and much more.


Phil Stoneman. (2001). Fanzines: Their Production, Culture and Future.Publishing Studies. 1 (1) p25

Joni Evans. (2009). When Publishing had Scents and Sounds. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/jobs/06pre.html. Last accessed 6th March 2013.

Tina Gant (1997). International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 16. 16th ed. United States: St. James Press. 1.