I just wrote a bit of an article about the demise of Jim Baen’s Universe. You canfind it over at Sword’s Edge.
Let me just say here, for those spec fic fans out there, you better start supporting short fiction markets, because that is an important place where new writers can polish their craft. Sure, you can sell directly into the novel market, and I know the writing of short and long fiction are two very different crafts, but the loss of short fiction markets will impact on the quality of long fiction.
It was also very negatively impact on the quality of short fiction. You get what you pay for, and free e-zines are more about validation for the author than quality fiction for the reader. And I write that as a former editor of a free fiction e-zine.