Omniscience
From Falsipedia
Marketplace Confusion
Guccione already published Omni magazine which was filled with cutting-edge speculative science and science fiction stories. Many people thought Omniscience was simply a retitled Omni. This confusion was increased by the design department's decision to reuse the Omni logo font and break the name of the magazine into two lines. Those people who picked up Omniscience thinking it was the standard Omni magazine were brought face to face with articles on transubstantiation and the nature of the divine. Instead of science fiction tales, there were devotional tales of missionaries in Mali.
The intended audience, not knowing that it was a theological publication, reached right over Omniscience magazine for Devotional Quarterly or Missionary Monthly. Guccione's company quickly learned that they had misbranded their magazine. That misbranding was not the only issue, though.
The Guccione Factor
Very few devout Christians were interested in any publication that was published by Guccione. Guccione also published Penthouse magazine, a pictorial magazine specializing as a catalyst for simulated romantic self-interaction, and Spin, a "rock'n'roll" lifestyle magazine for independent culture parvenus. These magazines were considered by the majority of the religious crowd as sinful and depraved. The word quickly spread amongst evangelicals that Guccione's publishing company was now attempting to make money off of the Christian market, and a concerted effort was made to boycott Omninesence and any company that advertised in its pages.
After just 8 months, the magazine was declared dead by Guccione himself in a press release. The release had some pointed statements about the concerted efforts to put the magazine out of business.
- "Well, you {REDACTED} did it! You killed the best thing that would have ever happened to your {REDACTED} community. You can all go {REDACTED} yourselves."
Fallout from the Death of Omniscience
The confusion caused by the similarities in Omni and Omniscience's naming and logos festered and eventually caused Omni magazine's death as well. Omni's circulation figures gradually fell over the course of 1989 and never returned to the pre-Omniscience levels. In a strong correlation, in the fall of 1995, 6 years to the month after the last issue of Omniscience, Omni magazine also ceased operations.
Guccione's other publications, including Penthouse and Spin were unharmed by this situation. Some scholars point to this as proof that sex and rock'n'roll are much more entertaining than religion and science, but these scholars are mainly from "party schools" and their opinions are suspect at best.
