The Between Two Books blog discusses how the short story medium, especially in Speculative Fiction, is alive and well, and digs into the interesting self-perpetuating nature of the format:

Many of these markets get almost as many submissions from writers as they do readers. In fact, other than a few long-standing and notable exceptions, the majority of the reading audience to these anthologies and magazines are writers themselves. It’s a case of writers writing to be read by other writers.

I really liked this article. I’m mostly a short fiction writer, and the kind of large-volume-of-submissions work flow that Literarium is geared towards favours short fiction writers (and poets).

It wasn’t always this way. Many of the greatest literature figures, particularly in science fiction, fantasy and horror, made their name writing short stories. Edgar Allan Poe only ever wrote one novel and is best remembered for his shorts. H P Lovecraft churned out hundreds of short stories, while Arthur C Clark, Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, Robert A Heinlein and Philip K Dick, all made their names writing shorts.

Check out the rest here:
http://betweentwobooks.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/short-stories-are-alive-and-well-in.html