The Best Semiprozine Artist Hugo category was established by the WSFS Business Meeting in 1984 after the growth of large fanzines which were often produced to professional publishing standards and available essentially only by subscription (e.g., Locus, SFC) began to dominate the Best Fanzine category.
As befits a fuzzy distinction, the criteria which separated fanzines from semiprozines are complex:
Any generally available non-professional publication devoted to science fiction or fantasy which by the close of the previous calendar year has published four (4) or more issues (or the equivalent in other media), at least one (1) of which appeared in the previous calendar year, and which in the previous calendar year met at least two (2) of the following criteria:
(1) had an average press run of at least one thousand (1000) copies per issue,
(2) paid its contributors and/or staff in other than copies of the publication,
(3) provided at least half the income of any one person,
(4) had at least fifteen percent (15%) of its total space occupied by advertising,
(5) announced itself to be a semiprozine.
They are basically designed to draw a line between the traditional fanzine (which, even if it has a subscription price, never brings in enough money to have a significant impact on its production values) and its bigger brethren. Note that there is no distinction between fanzine and semiprozine based on content.
See also the Hugo Awards, Retro Hugo Awards, List of Hugo Winners, List of Hugo Categories.
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