A Short History of Magazines

Magazine
 The word magazine comes from the
Arabic word “makhazin” which means
“storehouse”. Magazines are little
storehouses of information. But don’t
forget that the real reason magazines exist
is to bring consumers to advertisers.
 1700’s - 1830
 Early magazines were
read by the educated few
and contained essays,
government reports, book
lists, and reviews. Some
magazines that have
continued this tradition
are The New Republic,
The Atlantic Monthly ,
Harper's, Weekly
Standard, Salon, and The issue of Joseph Addison's Spectator
shown here, was mostly devoted to a
Slate . satire on vain-but-ugly London gentlemen.
The picture shows Addison painted in his
maturity by Joseph Kneller -- around 35 or
40?
 1830’s
 Inexpensive magazines
began to be published in
the mid-1800’s. The
articles focused on self-
improvement and
enlightenment. Later
miscellaneous bits of
information, novels in
serial form and
entertainment were
added.
 Godey’s Lady’s Book
 One of the most popular
of these mass-circulation
magazines was Godey’s
Lady’s Book edited by
Sarah Hale. Bits of this
magazine can be found
on the Internet. Writings
of many famous
American writers like
Poe, Hawthorne and
Longfellow were found on
its pages. Here is a
page discussing etiquette
from the magazine:
 GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK
Philadelphia, January 1850

POINTS OF ETIQUETTE.
Several, knotty points of etiquette have, from time to time, been submitted to us for decision; and
one or two of them are really of consequence enough to be noted.

Is it proper for the escort of a lady to request a gentleman occupying good seats at a concert or
lecture, to give them up to himself and charge, and retire to parts unknown in search of a standing
place, if the room should be crowded?

To this, we would answer that, if the gallantry of the gentlemen thus situated does not prompt them
to proffer the seats in question, it is rudeness to request it. A lady is a lady, it is true; but if she could
not come early enough to get a good seat, she cannot expect that spectators who did should
inconvenience themselves for her sake.

If it is at the theatre, where seats have been taken, it is the height of rudeness to request such a
favor; particularly if ladies be of the filet party. They must then be separated from their escort; a
strange lady is set down in the midst of their party, and all are placed in an awkward position. We
are afraid that the inborn politeness of American men has spoiled some of our ladies, if they expect
so much. In Europe, you would be laughed at, if such an exchange were demanded; and it would
be fortunate if the affair did not end in a rencontre, if the parties were equals.

We may as well mention here, for the sake of the other sex, that loud thumping with canes and
umbrellas, in demonstration of applause, is voted decidedly rude. Clapping the hands is quite as
efficient, and neither raises a dust to soil the dresses of the ladies, nor a hubbub enough to deafen
them.
 Meeting the Mass Demand
 With the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the
increase of literacy and a bill that passed Congress
giving magazines special mailing privileges, the growth
of magazines accelerated. Ladies’ Home Journal, Good
Housekeeping, McCall’s and Cosmopolitan began in the
1880’s and ’90’s, three of which are still in production
today.
Today
 Saturday Evening Post
 The Post was founded in 1821 and became the
most influential and powerful magazine in the
nation after it was purchased by Cyrus Curtis
who also owned the Ladies’ Home Journal.
Curtis made the Post a reflection of American
life. Great authors contributed to its pages
including Willa Cather, Jack London , whose Call
of the Wild was serialized in the Post in 1913, P
G Wodehouse, Sinclair Lewis, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ring Lardner,
Rudyard Kipling, Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair
Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, H.G. Wells, and
Stephen Crane.
In 1912 a 22-year-old
artist was hired to create
two covers for the Post
and thus launched the
career of Norman
Rockwell who became a
household name because
of the Saturday Evening
Post. In Rockwell’s 45-
year career as illustrator
for the Post he created
317 covers. His last
appeared on the
December, 1963 issue.
The magazine ceased
publication six years later.
 Reader’s Digest
 The Post had no serious competition
as the largest magazine in America
until 1932 when a small black-and-
white magazine was issued from the
basement in Greenwich Village. It
was the Reader’s Digest which
promised an article a day and fit in
your pocket. It became immediately
popular. Today Reader’s Digest has
the third largest circulation with
11,067,522 copies. What type of
magazine is RD?
 Time
In 1923 Henry Luce published the
first issue of a weekly news
magazine called Time. The
magazine helped make the news
make sense; it provided clear
summaries of the succession of
confusing events called news.
Time was a success and gave rise
to later successful imitators such
as Newsweek and U.S. News and
World Report.
 In the early thirties a marvelously portable
35mm camera was developed that could take
pictures of almost anything under the sun, and
Henry R. Luce and his colleagues at Time Inc.
made plans to use it for an entirely new
publishing venture. Their project, shrouded in
secrecy, emerged full-blown in November 1936,
and journalism was forever changed. With its
amazing photographs, Life magazine captured
the news plus the life of the average American.
Look magazine tried to capture the same
image.
 Infantryman
Brooklyn Dodger
1938 1944

John F. Kennedy 1963 Landing on the Moon

Jack Lemon and 1969
Shirley MacLaine
Life showed the famous and not so
famous in its famous photographs
 The End of Mass Circulation
Magazines
 From the end of WWII to the mid-60’s
magazines tried to truly be a mass medium,
appealing to everyone. But at the advent of TV
and tabloid newspapers, and the increasing
costs of printing made it became too expensive
to mass market most magazines and Life, Look,
and Saturday Evening Post went out of
business. All three had revivals, but Look never
made it back and the other two have limited
monthly circulations.
 Demographics
 A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in marketing and
broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment.
This typically involves age bands (as teenagers do not wish to purchase
denture fixant), social class bands (as the rich may want different products
than middle and poorer classes and may be willing to pay more) and gender
(partially because different physical attributes require different hygiene and
clothing products, and partially because of the man/woman mindsets).
 A demographic can be used to determine when and where advertising
should be placed so as to achieve maximum results. In all such cases, it is
important that the advertiser get the most results for their money, and so
careful research is done to match the demographic profile of the target
market to the demographic profile of the advertising medium.
 A good way to figure out the intended demographic of a television show or
magazine is to study the ads that accompany it. For example, in the United
States the television program The Price is Right most frequently airs from
11 a.m. to Noon. The commercials on it (besides the use of product
placement in the show itself) are often for things like arthritis pain relievers
and diapers. This indicates that the target demographics are senior citizens
and parents with young children, both of which would be home at that time
of day and see that show. (from Widipedia.org)
 The Rise of Special Interest
Magazines
 The trend today is for specialized magazines for
a small but interested audience. This provides a
perfect medium for advertisers to sell products
to the demographic who will buy them. The
same idea has occurred in the TV industry with
cable and satellite television.
 What special interests groups are targeted by
magazine companies?
 What special interest magazines do you read?
 Technology’s bonus

 Computer technology has made it easier for

companies to put out dozens of versions of the
same magazine adapted for special
demographics. Here are two covers of Time
magazine on the same day:
 Teen Magazines
 Here are the top teen magazines sellers:
1. Cosmo Girl
2. Seventeen
3. Girls' Life Magazine
4. Teen Vogue
5. Teen People
6. Elle Girl
7. American Cheerleader

 What is wrong with this picture?

 Looking for a boys magazine
 So I looked farther to see if I could find a
magazine that both genders of teenagers would
read. Here is one I thought was promising:
The problem was when I looked at the bottom of the page it
said that teens who bought Insider also bought:
Rolling Stone (okay, so far so good.)
Marie Clair
Lucky
Cosmo Girl
Seventeen
Girl’s Life (What!)

Do boys read Seventeen? Where are the boy magazines?

 Adapting to New Media
 We have seen and will see the evolution of
new technology changing or sometimes
eliminating old technologies, ie.
phonographs. One technology that is
changing the magazine media is the
computer. The first magazine to go digital
was the New England Journal of Medicine
in 1984. Since then, most magazines
have an online version.
 Webzines
The Internet also has spawned a number of
Web-only magazines which are called
webzines. and are the

best-known (some of you discovered them

for blogging purposes), but

and are also popular.

 Bibliography
ellisparkerbutler.info
Life.com
magsdirect.com
spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsaturday.ht
magazineline.com
Javits, William. Understanding Mass Media.
National Textbook Company, Lincolnwood,
IL: 1996 pgs. 314-320.